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History of Cincinnati Ohio,
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1 7 : ; 9
HISTORY
OF
CINCINNATI,
OHIO,
WITH
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches.
COMPILED BY
Henry A. Ford, A.M., and Mrs. Kate B. Ford.
L. A. WILLIAMS & CO.,
PUBLISHERS,
1881.
cod turn
Id I I 7 ; , . , — I I--J
3~ ■' ■' -<v
FROM PRINTING HOUSE OF W. W. WILLIAMS, CLEVELAND, OHIO.
Prefatory Note,
The reader looks forward to this, the first history of
Cincinnati that has yet found itself in print. The
writers look back across its half-century of chapters and
the century of years embraced by its annals, and have,
chiefest of all, to regret many unavoidable errors, both
of omission and commission. The more important of
these, it is hoped, will appear in our page of errata; but
there are still many, doubtless, that have escaped the
compilers' attention. In a few cases, discrepancies
appear between their statements and those of an extract
immediately following. In those instances they must
assure the reader that the former rest upon an authority
believed to be superior to the other in regard to the mat-
ter in hand; but time and space could not always be
taken for the discussion and settlement of points con-
cerning which there are variant reports. In all really
important matters, they believe the history will be found
quite trustworthy, especially when corrected from the
page of errata.
For the biographical feature of the work, except so
much of it as is embodied in the chapters before the
Lth, the writers have not, in general, any responsibility.
CONTENTS.
HISTORICAL,
CHAPTER
I. — A Brief Description of Cincinnati
II. — Ancient Works Upon the City's Site
III.— The Site of Losantiville
IV. — Before Losantiville
V. — Losantiville
VI. — Fort Washington
VII. — Cincinnati's First Decade
VIII. — Cincinnati Township
IX. — Cincinnati's Second Decade .
X. — Cincinnati's Third Decade
XI. — Cincinnati's Fourth Decade .
XII. — Cincinnati's Fifth Decade
XIII. — Cincinnati's Sixth Decade
XIV. — Cincinnati's Seventh Decade
XV. — Cincinnati's Eighth Decade
XVI. — Cincinnati in the War
XVII. —The Siege of Cincinnati
XVIII. — Cincinnati's Ninth Decade
XIX. — The German Element in Cincinnati .
XX. — Religion in Cincinnati
XXI.— Education .
XXII.— Public Charities .
XXII. — Benevolent and other Societies
XXIV.— Science
XXV.— Art
XXVI.— Music ....
PAGE
9
CHAPTER
XXVII.-
14
XXVIII.
18
XXIX.-
20
XXX.-
26
XXXI.
37
XXXII.-
42
XXXIII.
5°
XXXIV-
52
XXXV.
62
XXXVI.-
74
XXXVII.-
81
XXXVIII.
90
XXXIX.-
99
XL.-
103
XLI.-
106
XLII.-
112
XLIII.-
119
XLIV-
127
XLV-
146
XLVI.-
172
XLVII.-
202
XLVIII.-
213
XLIX.-
222
L-
235
246
-Libraries
—Literature
-Bookselling and Publication
—Journalism
'.. — Medicine ....
-The Rench and Bar
— Manufacturing
—The Industrial Exposition
'. — Commerce and Navigation
—Banking — Finance — Insurance
—The Post Office .
—The Local Militia — The First Appointments
—Amusements
—Cemeteries
—The City: Government
—The Fire Department
—The Water-works
-Penal Institutions
-The Police — Board of Health
-Markets . ...
-Streets — Street Railroads — Bridges — Parks, etc.
-Annexations and Suburbs
-Biographical Sketches
-Personal Notes
-Appendix.
PAGE
258
264
276
284
293
310
324
34o
348
356
362
36S
368
376
379
383
388
393
396
398
401
407
416
477
PAGE
315
428
431
440
466
200
29S
310
136
140
177
294
315
448
443
455
465
469
132
138
140
200
29
199
136
137
200
264
294
295
320
BIOGRAPHICAL,
Baum, Martin ....
127
Burkhalter, Christian
128
Burnet, Jacob ....
265—311
Burnet, Dr. William
294
Blackburn, Dr. John
298
Bramble, Dr. David D.
431
Buckner, Dr. James H.
438
Bailey, Samuel, jr. .
450
Bouscaren, Louis G. F.
465
Cists, the .
265
Cary Sisters, the
273—419
Cramer, Dr. John . . . .
295
Cox, Hon. Joseph
43°
Cappeller, Hon. W. S.
448
Carey, Milton Thompson
441
Chickering, J. B.
454
Covington, Hon. S. F.
462
Denman, Matthias
27
Drakes, the
. 204
Drake, Dr. Daniel . . . .
296
Dunlevy, Hon. A. H. .
312
Davis, William Bramwell
436
Duckworth, George K.
467
Dodson, William Beal
473
Eshelby, E. O
451
Eaton, Morton Monroe
468
Eells, Samuel ....
475
Filson, John . . . .
27
Frankensteins, the .
141
Flint, Rev. Timothy
265
Findlay, Samuel ....
3"
Fox, Charles .
Force, Hon. Manning F.
Follett, Hon. John F.
Fishburn, Cyrus D.
Fehrenbatch, Hon. John
Guilford, Nathan
Goforth, Dr. William
Goudy, Thomas .
Hemann, Joseph Anton
Hofer, Nikolaus
Herron, Joseph
Hole, Dr. John .
Hammond, Charles
Hunt, Samuel F.
Hickenlooper, Andrew
Harper, Professor George W. .
Hunt, Colonel C. B.
Johnston, Campbell and family
Klauprecht, Emil
Kautz, August V.
Kron, Pastor
King, Rufus
Ludlow, Colonel Isaac
Lewis, Samuel .
Molitor, Stephan
Moor, August
McGuffey, Dr. William H.
Mansfield, Edward D.
Morrell, Dr. Calvin .
McClure, Dr. Robert
McMillan, William .
CONTENTS.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Matthews, Hon. Stanley'
Mussey, Dr. Reuben D.
Mussey, Dr. W. H.
Miles, 'Dr. A. J.
Muscroft, Dr. C. S
Maley, Dr. P. F
McClung, Colonel David
Nast, Wilhelm
Patterson, Colonel Robert, .
Pulte, Joseph H.,
Pike, S. N. .
Picket, Albert
Powers, Benjamin F.,
Reese, Rev. Dr. Friedrich
Rodter, Heinrich,
Rumelin, Karl Gustav,
Rattermann, Heinrich A., .
Rentz, August, .
Roelker, Dr. Friedrich,
Rehfuss, Ludwig,
Ray, Dr. Joseph
Ramsay, Dr. Samuel
Riddle, Colonel John
Ramp, Samuel W. '
Symmes, John Cleve,
Stallos, Theodore,
Stowe, Calvin, E.,
PAGE
416
Stites, Dr. John,
422
Symmes, Daniel,
423
Short, John Cleves,
433
Smith, Hon. Amor,
439
Staley, L. A.,
442
Sadler, L. L.,
444
Stowe, James G. ,
128
Santmeyer, Captain C. A. ,
27
Steele, Charles McDonald,
133
Skaats, Hon. George W. ,
142
Starbuck, Calvin W.,
200
Smith, Samuel Sherwood,
3i5
Underhill, Dr. J. W., .
128
Von Stein, Albert, .
129
Von Masters, Heinrich, .
130
Varwig, Henry,
133
Voight, Captain Lewis, .
'35
Von Seggern, Christopher,
I3S
Walker, George
137
Weitzel, General Gottfried
200
Wright, Dr. Marmaduke B
298
Wild, John S
417
Ward, General Durbin
449
Wright, Dr. C. O
73
Wulsin, Drausin
143
White, James S
200
Zinn, Major Peter
PAGE
293
3"
416
446
447
452
4S3
456
464
4S8
472
473
434
128
132
470
47i
476
136
138
299
312
427
442
459
460
424
ILLUSTRATIONS,
PAGE
PAGE
The Cincinnati Music Hall
Frontispiece.
Portrait of Colonel David W. McClung
facing 192
Portrait 0
Judge J. C. Symmes
facing
9
" Amor Smith, jr.
facing 200
Fort Washington
facing
37
L. A. Staley
facing 208
Cincinnati
in 1802
56
Hon. W. S. Cappeller
facing 216
Plan of Cincinnati in 1815
facing
68
Samuel F. Hunt
facing 224
The Trollope Bazaar .
facing
70
Samuel W. Ramp
facing 232
The Church of the Pioneers
150
Samuel Bailey, jr,
facing 240
The First Cincinnati College Building
facing
179
E. O. Eshelby
facing 248
The Tyler
Davidson Fountain
between 404 and
405
" L. L. Sadler
facing 256
Portrait 0:
John Cleves Short
facing
16
James G. Stowe
facing 264
•'
Hon. Stanley Matthews
facing
24
Prof. J. B. Chickering
facing 272
"
Alonzo Taft
facing
28
" Alice Cary
between 272 and 273
"
Colonel John Riddle .
facing
32
" Phcebe Cary
between 272 and 273
"
Dr. Reuben D. Mussey
facing
4°
" Professor G. W. Harper
facing 280
"
Dr. W. H. Mussey
facing
48
" Captain C. A. Santmeyer .
facing 288
"
Major Peter Zinn .
facing
64
" Murat Halstead
facing 291
"
General Rees E. Price
facing
72
" Hon. George W. Skaats
facing 296
■■
General Durbin Ward
facing
80
" Drausin V,
facing 304
"
Hon. Manning F. Force
facing
88
James S. W wite
facing 312
"
Hon. Joseph Cox
facing
96
S. F. Covington „
facing 320
'•
Hon. John F. Follett
facing
I04
" Charles McDonald Steele
facing 328
•■
David D. Bramble
facing
112
Colonel C. B. Hunt .
facing 336
"
Dr. A. J. Mills
facing
I20
" Louis G. F. Bouscaren
facing 344
"
Dr. J. W. Underhill
facing
128
" Hon. John Fehrenbatch
facing 352
"
William Bramwell Davis
facing
I36
George K. Duckworth
facing 360
"
Dr. James H. Buckner
facing
144
" Morton Monroe Eaton, M. D.
facing 368
"
Dr. C. S. Muscroft
facing
152
Henry Varwig
facing 376
"
Dr. Cyrus D. Fishburn
facing
160
" Captain Lewis Voight
facing 384
"
Dr. C. O. Wright
facing
168
William Henry Cook, M. D.
facing 392
"
P. F. Maley
facing 176
" Christopher Von Seggern
facing 400
"
General A. Hickenlooper
facing
184
W. H. Bristol
facing 408
,.->-.
wm^s*
JOHN CLEVES SYMMES.
HISTORY
OF
Cincinnati, Ohio.
CHAPTER I.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CINCINNATI.
How blest is he whose doom it is
A wanderer to roam,
Who even in memory can return
To such a lovely home.
Oh, were I in the fairest clime
That smiles beneath the sky,
Here would my spirit long to come —
If not to live, to die.
As yearns the weary child at night
To gain its mother's breast,
So, weary with my wanderings,
Here would I long to rest.
"To the Queen City," by Charles A Jones.
Where grand Ohio rolls his silver floods
Through verdant fields and darkly waving woods, ^
Beholding oft, in flowery verdure drest, .
The green isle swelling from his placid breast ;
Here where so late the Indian's lone canoe,
Swift o'er the wave, in fearless triumph flew,
Behold the stately steam-borne vessel glide,
With eager swiftness, o'er the yielding tide ;
And where so late its shelter, rude and low,
The wigwam reared, beneath the forest bough,
Lo ! cities spring before the wondering eyes,
And domes of grandeur swell into the skies.
[Lines prefixed to Bullock's Sketch of a Journey, 1827.]
To the Queen of the West,
In her garlands dressed,
On the banks of the Beautiful River.
H. W. Longfellow.
Cincinnati is situated on the north bank of the river
Ohio, the part of it first settled being opposite the mouth
of the Licking river, upon the site of the original village
of Losantiville. Its latitude is thirty-nine degrees six
minutes north; longitude eighty-four degrees twenty-
seven minutes west. It is three hundred and ninety
miles west of Washington city; four hundred and sixty-
six miles by the river, or two hundred and fifty miles in a
direct line, southwest of Pittsburgh; one hundred and
twenty miles southwest of Columbus, and two hundred
and fifty-five from Cleveland; and five hundred miles by
river, or two hundred and ninety directly, to the mouth
of the Ohio at Cairo. (The city is built upon three ter-
races, The first, or that next the river, has an average
height, above low water in the river, of sixty feet; the sec-
ond of one hundred and twelve feet; and the third, or
the general level of the hills, rises to commanding heights
varying from three hundred and ninety-six feet on Mount
Adams to four hundred and sixty feet on Mount Harri-
son, west of Mill creek. /The first terrace was found by
the early settlers to extend from a gravelly hill or bluff
near the present line of Third street, between Broadway
and a point west of John street, to an abrupt but not
very high bank about one hundred feet south of the hill,
which was penetrated here and there by small coves.
Between this bank and the river was a low but sloping
shore, always flooded in time of high water. All this has
been changed, including the disappearance of the bank
and bluffs, by the progress of improvement in the older
part of the city. The second terrace stretched from the
general line of Third street in a gentle rise, as .now, back
to the hills. From this the ascent to the third plateau,
or the summit of the hills, is in many places exceedingly
abrupft and is surmounted in part by graded and macad-
amized roads up the ravines between the spurs, and in
part by four inclined places — at Mount Adams, at the
head of Main street, at a slope on Mount Auburn, near
the head of Elm street, and at Price's hill, near the west
end of the city, up all of which cars are pulled by powerful
steam engines. These hills, with the popular resorts and
places of amusement thereon, constitute the chief attrac-
tion of the city, and are almost world renowned in their
fame. Mr. John R. Chamberlain, writer of the valuable
article on Cincinnati in the American Cyclopaedia, says
they form "one of the most beautiful natural amphithea-
tres on the continent, from whose hilltops may be seen
the splendid panorama of the cities below and the wind-
ing Ohio. No other large city of the United States af-
fords such a variety of position and beauty." They are
described as having been exceedingly attractive in their
pristine loveliness. Mr. J. P. Foote, in his "Schools of
Cincinnati," writing of the hills as they appeared in the
early day, says; "At that period they formed a border
of such surpassing beauty, around the plain on which
Cincinnati stood, as to cause us, who remember them in
their beauty, almost to regret the progress of improve-
which has taken from us what it can never restore." The
names of the principal eminences, from east to west of
the city, are Mount Lookout, the Walnut Hills, Mount
Adams, Mount Auburn, Clifton Heights, Fairmount,
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Mount Harrison, Mount Hope, Price's Hill, and Mount
Echo. The average height of the hills above tidewater
at Albany is eight hundred and fifty feet, and of the
second terrace five hundred and forty feet; it being
twenty-five feet below the level of Lake Erie. Low water
mark in the river at Cincinnati in four hundred and
thirty-two feet above the sea, and one hundred and thirty-
three below Lake Erie. The descent from the upper
plane of Cincinnati below the hills to low water is there-
fore one hundred and eight feet.
The major part of the city, for population and busi-"
ness, though by far the smallest in territorial extent, lies
upon the first and second terraces. They are part of a
beautiful and fertile plain, lying in an irregular circle,
and extending on both sides of the river, about twelve
miles in circumference. It is cut into unequal parts
by the course of the river, which here makes several
curves, but has a general northeast to southwest direc-
tion. On two sides of the northern section of the plain,
which is the smaller, the city is built along the narrow
spaces between the hills and the river, and to some ex-
tent on the hills themselves. On the northeast, for four
and a half miles, or to and including Columbia, now a
part of the city, this belt is but about five hundred yards
wide; on the southwest the width is only three hundred
yards to the city limits, a mile and three-quarters beyond
the point where the hills, after curving around this part
of the plateau, return to the river, about three miles from
the point at which they left it on the other side. The
city has thus a very extensive water-front — about eleven
miles, allowing for the curvatures of the river, and taking
in, among the annexations of the last ten years, the old
village of Columbia on the one side and the former su-
burb of Sedamsville on the other. The average width of
the city site is three miles, although up the valley of
Mill creek, since the annexation of Cumminsville in
1873, the extreme breadth is five and one-half miles.
The total area enclosed by the corporation lines is fifteen
thousand two hundred and sixty acres, or very nearly
twenty-four square miles — an increase of seventeen square
miles since 1870 (when it comprised but four thousand
four hundred and eighty acres), by the successive and
rapid annexation of suburbs. The older part of the city
is intersected by the valley of Deer creek on the east,
which is now dry except after heavy rains, and is partly
occupied by the great Eggleston avenue sewer; and by
the Mill creek valley on the west,' which is broad and
fertile, and comparatively level for many miles to the
northward. Beyond Mill creek the hills are cut through
by the narrower valley of Lick run. The former con-
tains a good sized stream, which has been greatly service-
able for mills and other purposes, since an early period
in the history of the place.
The main body of the city, including the business portion and the
densest population, borders on the river between the mouth of Deer
creek on the east and that of Mill creek on the west, a distance of two
and one-half miles. North of East Liberty street and the Hamilton
road, the hillsides from Deer creek to Mill creek are terraced with
streets, and [in places] covered with dwellings to their summits. Mount
Adams, overlooking the southeast corner of the plateau, has streets
thickly lined with dwellings on its summit and west and south sides.
The remainder of the city, including the narrow valleys along the
f.
river, above and below the city proper, the village of Cumminsville,
next the northern corporation line in Mill creek valley, and the several
table-iand villages from Woodburn on the east to Fairmount on the
west, is irregularly built. In the northwest part are native forests and
cultivated farms. On the western hills are vineyards and gardens. Be-
tween Harrison avenue and the Twenty-fifth ward (Cumminsville) are
many vegetable gardens. *
THE SUBURBS.
A number of villages, formerly suburbs, are now in-
cluded in the city. The principal of these, beginning on
the east, are Columbia, Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, and
Cumminsville. Fairmount is a residence quarter west of
Mill Creek valley, and Sedamsville is mainly a manufact-
uring district, lying south of the western range of hills,
between it and the river, about three and a half miles
from Fountain Square. Fulton is a part of the city at
the base of the hills on the other side of the plain, be-
ginning beyond the Little Miami railway depot and run-
ning in a narrow tract northeast to Pendleton village,
which lies between it and Columbia. Northeast of
Columbia the city includes a part of Tusculum. Due
north of it, at the extreme northeast corner of the city, is
Mount Lookout, a small but attractive suburb, in part
outside the corporation limits, and the seat of the Cincin-
nati observatory; about north of the dividing line between
Fulton and Pendleton, and on the hills, is the little plat
known as O'Bryonville, between which and Walnut Hills
is Woodburn, an extensive and well-built area; and west
of Walnut Hills, between Mount Auburn and the north
corporation line, is Corryville, a residence and business
quarter, on the \«est of which is the spacious and beauti-
ful Burnet Woods Park, and on the north, just outside
the eity, in the southwest part of Avondale, the famous
zoological gardens. Camp Washington occupies a lim-
ited space between the Miami canal and Mill creek, in
the vicinity of the workhouse and the house of refuge.
Brighton is not marked as a district quarter upon the
latest maps, but is that part of the city reaching from the
junction of Freeman street and Central avenue west to
Mill Creek, and takes its name from the former existence
of the city stockyards there. Barrsville, Forbusville,
Peterstown, and Lick Run are hamlets adjoining or not
far from Fairmount, on the heights west of Mill Creek;
and Weaversburgh is a station on the Westwood Narrow
Gauge railroad west of Fairmount, and close to the cor-
poration line. These highlands, between Fairmount and
the Ohio, are as yet occupied to but a limited extent,
from the difficulty with which most parts of them are
still reached from the city. "The outer highland belt of
the city commands distant views of hills in Kentucky
and Ohio, and of the valleys of Mill Creek, the Licking,
and the Ohio. It is beautified by elegant residences in
the midst of extensive and highly cultivated landscape
lawns, whose shrubbery is often the native forest, and is
traversed by winding avenues. From the eastern corpo-
ration line, through East Walnut Hills and Woodburn to
West Walnut Hills, mansions occupy grounds of from
three to seventy-five acres. The blue limestone of the
hills is used in the construction of the finest buildings;
[and .some of them have been erected from material
* American Cyclopaedia, article Cincinnati.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
quarried upon the very grounds they occupy.] West
Walnut. Hills and Mount Auburn, though in parts quite
compactly built, abound in -elegant and costly residences,
each having from one to four acres of grounds."*
Outside the city, but in immediate proximity to it, are
several lovely suburbs. Prominent among these is Clif-
ton, between Cumminsville and Avondale, with the Bur-
net Woods park cornering upon it at the southeast. It
is described as "a most beautiful suburb, and an almost
continuous landscape garden."f It has many fine groves
and costly residences. The grounds about them occupy
areas of ten to eighty acres. Avondale, next east of
Clifton, and north of Corryville and Walnut Hills, com-
prises about eight hundred acres of territory, and is also
superbly built. Its views include the neighboring hills,
which, however, shut out the river scenery from the den-
izens of this suburb. East and northeast of this are
Norwood, Oakley, Madisonville, and other places of
suburban residence; and between the last named and
Columbia is Linwood, a small place near the Little Mi-
ami railroad, six and a half miles from the court house
in Cincinnati. College Hill, away to the northwestward,
about eight miles from Fountain Square, occupies the
highest ground in the county,' on the heights west of Mill
Creek. Glendale is another famous suburb in this direc-
tion; also Carthage, eight miles out, near which are the
Longview and the Colored insane asylums, and the city
and county infirmaries. North and northeast of the city
are also Bond Hill and Hartwell; Mount Washington and
California are eastward, beyond the left bank of the Little
Miami; Riverside, a suburb of two and one-half miles
length along the river, adjoins Sedamsville on the extreme
southwest of the city, and beyond it are Delhi and other
suburban villages scattered along the shore. In all direc-
tions from the city, but particularly to the north, north-
westward, and northeastward, a score of miles, are many
other places which may properly be reckoned suburbs
of Cincinnati. On the Kentucky side are Covington,
west of the Licking river, now a considerable city, the
largest in Kentucky except Louisville, with West Cov-
ington, Ludlow, and Bromley as suburban places for
itself and Cincinnati, along the river to the west, and
Latonia Springs, five miles out, on the Lexington pike,
as a favorite place of resort and residence. On the
other side of the Licking, opposite Cincinnati, is New-
port, with the United States barracks and a considerable
population; and northeast of it, also on the Ohio river,
are the villages of East Newport, Bellevue, and Dayton.
Newport is connected with Covington by a suspension
bridge across the Licking, and with Cincinnati by the
Louisville Short Line railroad bridge, which is also used
for street-cars and other vehicles, and for foot passengers.
The Cincinnati Southern railway bridge connects Cincin-
nati and Ludlow ; but it is used only for the purpose of
the railroad. Between these two bridges is the main
artery of communication between the two sides of the
Ohio in this region — the renowned suspension bridge, a
* American Cyclopaedia.
•(•King's Pocket-book of Cincinnati.
mile from the former and a mile and a half from the
latter, and connecting Cincinnati from near the foot of
Walnut and Vine streets with Covington. It is not used
for any steam railroad, but all the Covington lines of
street-cars, with one line of the Newport horse-cars, cross
it, with other vehicles and foot passengers in vast num-
bers. Three ferries also connect Cincinnati with Cov-
ington, Newport, and Ludlow, respectively; and the
abundant facilities of access, with other inducements,
have led to the residence of large numbers of Cincinnat-
ians in the Kentucky suburbs. In the vicinity of the
city and suburbs, on both sides of the Ohio, are many
beautiful drives.
THE OLD CITY.
This part of Cincinnati — that on the plain — is laid out
quite regularly, somewhat on the Philadelphia plan, and
with a number of the Philadelphia street names. The
streets are generally from one and a half to two and a half
miles long, and fifty to one hundred feet wide. The lat-
ter is the common width. "West of Central avenue they
run north from the river and east from Mill creek, while
east of that avenue their direction from the river is
slightly west of north. The streets and avenues are
generally paved or macadamized, many of them being
adorned with shade trees. The buildings are substantial,
and chiefly of brick. A grayish buff freestone, for fronts,
is universally used for large business houses and the
finest residences in the city proper, though many of the
residences on the hills are of wood. The prevailing
height of business buildings is five stories, though many
are six. Dwellings are generally high and narrow, and
seldom have front yards. The chief mercantile quarter
covers about three hundred acres, and lies between Fifth
street and the river, and Broadway and Smith street.
Business is not concentrated as in other cities. Manu-
factories are scattered through all parts of the city and its
suburbs. Pearl street, which contains nearly all the
wholesale boot and shoe and dry goods houses, is noted
for its splendid row of lofty, uniform stone fronts, between
Vine and Race streets. Fourth street, the fashionable
promenade, and the most select retail business street
between Broadway and Central avenue, a mile in extent,
is noted for its splendid stone-front buildings. Third
street, between Main and Vine, contains the banking,
brokerage and insurance establishments, and the at-
torney's offices; and west of Vine the large clothing
houses. Within a quarter of a mile of the custom house
and post office are most of the chief theatres, newspaper
offices and libraries. In Pike street, in Fourth street
from Pike to Broadway, and in Broadway between Third
and Fifth streets, are the mansions of the 'East End';
in Fourth street, west of Smith street, in Dayton street,
and in Court street, between Freeman and Baymiller
streets, those of the 'West End.' The large district
north of the Miami canal, which enters the city from the
northwest, and extends south to the Ohio river, is known
as 'Over the Rhine.' It is densely populated, almost
exclusively by Germans; has numerous beer gardens,
saloons and concert halls, and is thoroughly German in
its characteristics. In this vicinity are all the great brew-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
eries of Cincinnati. " * About twenty-five thousand per-
sons occupy this populous district. Some of the beer
and wine cellars of the quarter will hold half a million
gallons of liquor. It furnishes many famous places of
resort, especially for Germans and on Sunday. The
superb Music hall and Exposition buildings are situated
here, on the block bounded by Elm, Plum, Fourteenth
and Grant streets ; also Washington park, opposite Music
hall, occupying four and one-third acres, and containing
a bronze bust, heroic size, of Colonel Robert L. McCook,
one of Cincinnati's dead in the late war. West of
Music hall, on the other side of the canal, is the im-
mense Cincinnati hospital — eight buildings in one, oc-
cupying nearly two squares. #n the old city are, of
course, all the leading hotels, among which the Burnet,
the Gibson, the Grand and the Emery are conspicuous;
also the more costly and elegant church edifices, as St.
Peter's (Catholic) cathedral, with its peculiarly graceful
spire, its colonnade of Corinthian columns, and its musical
chimes, several of the Presbyterian churches, St. Paul's
Methodist, St. John's Episcopal church, the Hebrew
temples, and many others; the buildings of St. Xavier's,
the Wesleyan Female, the Cincinnati, and the several
medical colleges; the Mechanics' institute, the Public
library and others ; the great Government building going
up on Fifth street, near Fountain square; the City build-
ing and the County Courthouse; the singular Trollopean
Bazaar, on Third, near Broadway;! several fine club
houses ; Pike's, Robinson's, and the Grand Opera houses,
and the Mclodeon and Mozart halls; and a number of
small parks, as the Washington, the Lincoln, the Eighth-
street, the City building, and the Water-works parks, all
small; Fountain square, with the magnificent Tyler-
Davidson fountain, the most notable work of art in the
city, forty-five feet high, costing, with .the spacious es-
planade on which on which it stands, over two hundred
thousand dollars; the Masonic temple, an imposing free-
stone-front building in the Byzantine style; the Hughes
and Woodward high schools, and most of the other pub-
lic school buildings; and many more interesting and ele-
gant structures. Most sites of historic interest are in
this part of the city, as the site of Fort Washington, on
and near the junction of Third street and Broadway,
and others.
IN THE ANNEXATIONS.
Outside the older city, however, is Camp Washington,
a place of rendezvous and equipment for troops in the
Mexican war; beyond it is Cumminsville, where "Lud-
low's Station" was situated during the early years of white
settlement here; and at the extreme eastern part of the
city is Columbia, where the first settlement in the Miami
country was made. Upon the Camp Washington tract
are the enormous buildings occupied by the Cincinnati
Workhouse and House of Refuge ; upon the hillside at
Fairmount, to the southwest, is the former Baptist Theo-
logical Seminary, now the "Schutzenplatz,'' a German
club-house, commanding a superb view of the Mill Creek,
* American Cyclopaedia,
f Torn down in February, 1881.
Lick Run and Ohio valleys; and adjoining Cumminsville
are the Wesleyan and Spring Grove cemeteries, the lat-
ter of six hundred acres, the largest and otherwise one
of the finest cemeteries of the country, considered by
some the most picturesque large cemetery in the world.
Cumminsville has also the Catholic orphan asylum. On
the hills are the various large buildings and gardens, con-
stituting the famous hill-top resorts, one at the head of
each inclined plane. Many schools of note are on or
near these heights — as the Cincinnati University, the
Mount Auburn young ladies' seminary, Mount St. Mary
seminary, Mount St. Vincent young ladies' seminary, and
Lane theological seminary; charitable institutions — the
Cincinnati orphan asylum, German protestant orphan
asylum, the Widows' and Old Men's home, and others ;
some fine churches; the Zoological gardens, just beyond
the city limits; one small park — Hopkins — on Mount
Auburn, and the two great parks of the city — Burnet
woods, containing one hundred and sixty-seven acres,
nearly, with a lake of about three acres, and famous for
its grand concerts of summer afternoons — also Eden
park, east of the old town, largest of all the city's parks,
comprising two hundred and six acres, on which are lo-
cated the large reservoirs of the city water works, and a
neat stone building called the Casino or Shelter House,
from which, as well as from other spots in the park,
many charming views may be had. At the further end
of Pendleton, on the bank of the river, is a pleasant,
finely-improved tract of twelve acres — private property,
but used much by picnics and pleasure parties — which was
formerly known as East End garden, but is now called
Woodland park.
THE RIVER
makes a great bend and two small ones in front of the
city, and thus affords a very extensive river front. Most
of this is private property, and is considerably occupied,
not only for steamboats, but for coal-boats, barges, log-
rafts, and other water-craft. The city owns the landing
from near the water-works, east of the Little Miami de-
pot, to Mill creek, and leases the larger part to steamboat
lines, ferry companies, and other parties. The Public
Landing, so-called, which has been such from the earliest
period of the city's history, extends from the foot of
Broadway to the foot of Main street; and it is here most
of the river steamers, some of them very large and ele-
gantly appointed, are to be found moored. A wharf
master and wharf register collect dues from vessels for
the privileges of this landing, and otherwise look after
the city's interests on the river. 'The Ohio is liable to
great and sudden freshets, particularly in the spring, when
it has sometimes risen fifty to fifty-five feet above low-
water mark, and formerly did immense mischief. The
flood of 1832 marked sixty-two and a half feet, and that
of 1848 fifty-seven feet above low-water. These were
very destructive, and are memorable in the annals of the
city. About twelve hundred acres in the Mill creek val-
ley were formerly subject to inundation ; but that tract
has been considerably narrowed by "making land" above
high-water mark for manufactories, dwellings, and other
improvements demanded by the growth of the city. The
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
13
bottom-lands are rendered highly fertile by the annual
overflows, and are in great request, so far as they are still
available, for market gardening; also, in the lowest spots,
for brickmaking. The deposit of fine clay in these
places from a single inundation is sometimes four inches
deep, is very smoothly laid, and when removed is almost
ready, without further preparation, for the mold. The
river has been, as will be shown further in this volume,
an extremely important factor in the growth of the city.
CANALS.
The Miami & Erie cana-l was one of the first projects
of the kind to be executed in the State. Its history has
been detailed in the first division of this book. It enters
the city at Cumminsville, on the east side of Mill creek
and some distance from it, and proceeds in a winding
but generally southeasterly course, with a right angle at
the intersection of Canal street, to the basin at the cor-
ner of Canal and Sycamore streets. From this point to
the river, just east of the Little Miami depot, it has been
abandoned, or rather converted into a huge closed sewer
called Eggleston avenue sewer, which occupies in part
the bed of the former Deer creek, and discharges through
a spacious tunnel into the river at the point named.
The remainder of the canal, extending to Toledo, is still
in use.
The excavation and abandonment of the Whitewater
canal, the only other canal which Cincinnati has had,
have been related in the history of Hamilton county.
STEAM RAILROADS.
The railway connections of Cincinnati are exceedingly
numerous, far-reaching, and important, as has been seen
in the chapter on this subject in the previous part of this
work. The railways entering this city upon their own
or others' tracks, are the New York, Pennsylvania &
Ohio (formerly the Atlantic & Great Western), the Balti-
more & Ohio, the Cincinnati Southern, the Cleveland,
Columbus, Cincinnati, & Indianapolis (popularly known
as the "Bee Line"), the Cincinnati, Hamilton, & Day-
ton, the Marietta & Cincinnati, the Cincinnati & Muskin-
gum Valley, the Cincinnati, Hamilton, & Indianapolis,
the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, & Columbus, the Dayton
Short Line, the Louisville Short Line, the Little Miami,
or Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, & St. Louis ("Pan Handle"),
the Ohio & Mississippi, the Whitewater Valley, the Fort
Wayne, Muncie, & Cincinnati, the Cincinnati, Wabash,
& Michigan, the Cincinnati, Richmond, & Chicago, the
Grand Rapids & Indiana, and the Indianapolis, Cincin-
nati, & Lafayette; besides the narrow-gauge roads — the
Cincinnati & Eastern, the Cincinnati & Portsmouth, the
Cincinnati & Westwood, and the College Hill railways.
All of these, except the railways from the south, come
in by the narrow strips of land left in the Ohio valley on
each side of the old city, or by the Mill Creek valley;
and most of them enter three depots— the Plum street,
the "C, H., & D.," at the corner of Fifth and Hoadly
streets, and the Little Miami, at the corner of Front and
Kilgour. The Cincinnati Southern has its own depot,
at the corner of McLean avenue and Gest street. All
the depots are near "the river, and those in the eastern
and western parts of the city proper are connected by a
track for limited use in transferring freight. The Ken-
tucky Central, which has its northern terminus in Cov-
ington, may also be considered as in the Cincinnati
system.
HORSE RAILROADS.
These include four lines to Covington, one of them
through Newport; another Newport line; the Elm street
and the Vine street lines, connecting with the Clifton
line by the inclined plane near the head of Elm street;
the Main street line, using another incline at the head of
Main street to reach its track to the Zoological gardens;
the Baymiller street line, connecting at the foot of Mt.
Adams with an incline to the summit, up which cars,
horses and passengers are taken as they drive upon its
carriage from the street, and at the top connecting with
the Eden Park, Walnut Hills and Avondale line; the
Eighth street line, connecting with the inclined railway
at Price's Hill; the Cumminsville and Spring Grove line,
which has recently been extended to Fountain Square,
furnishing the longest ride in the city, between five and
six miles, for a single fare; the Walnut Hills line up Gil-
bert avenue; the Third street line; the Seventh street
line; the John street line, and the Riverside and Sedams-
ville line. A recent extension on Liberty street gives a
new line to Brighton by Fourth and Main streets. The
Elm street line, at' its eastern terminus in Pendleton,
connects with steam dummy lines for Columbia and
Mount Lookout. The direct Newport line makes con-
nection with a dummy line for Bellevue and Dayton.
All the down-town horse railways start from or near
Fountain Square. Most of the lines are consolidated,
so that tickets sold by one line are usable upon others.
OTHER FACILITIES
of transportation are abundant. A number of omni-
buses and stage lines run to points in the country from
five to thirty miles distant, not reached by the steam or
horse railways, and several lines of river steamers ply
between Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio, Cum-
berland, Mississippi, Arkansas, White and Red rivers.
The bridges and ferries also supply great public needs
nearer home. The Miami stockyards, on Eggleston
avenue, covering three acres, and furnishing accommo-
dations for ten thousand animals, facilitate the delivery
of cattle, hogs, and sheep to several of the railroads.
The United Railroads Stockyard company occupies a
larger tract, fifty acres on Spring Grove avenue and Mill
creek, near Cumminsville, where the land and improve-
ments, affording accommodations for five thousand cat-
tle, ten thousand sheep, and twenty-five thousand hogs,
have cost over three-quarters of a million of dollars.
The completion of the canal at Louisville around the
falls of the Ohio, some years ago, now allows the largest
Mississippi river steamers to come up to this city.
TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES.
These are sufficiently numerous for all public and pri-
vate needs. The Western Union and the Atlantic &
Pacific undertake the far-away communications; the city
and suburban telegraph association, the board of trade
14
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
telegraph, the police and fire telegraphs, have important
local uses; as also the Bell telephonic exchange, with
which the former Edison telephone exchange has been
consolidated.
MISCELLANEOUS.
We have aimed in this opening chapter of the history
of Cincinnati to present mainly the things which appear
outwardly, to give a bird's-eye view of the city. Other
and less apparent matters, as the city government, the
police and fire departments, the water and gas works, the
manufactures, trade and commerce of the city, its re-
ligious, educational, literary and charitable institutions,
its newspapers and periodicals, the public libraries, and
many other subjects, will be set forth under their appro-
priate heads hereafter.
CHAPTER II.
ANCIENT WORKS UPON THE CITY'S SITE.
Lonely and sad it stands;
The trace of ruthless hands
Is on its sides and summit, and around
The dwellings of the white man pile the ground;
And, curling in the air,
The smoke of twice a thousand hearths is there;
Without, all speaks of life, within,
Deaf to the city's echoing din,
Sleep well the tenants of that silent mound,
Their names forgot, their memories uncrowned.
Upon its top I tread,
And see around me spread
Temples and mansions, and the hoary hills,
Bleak with the labor that the coffer fills,
But mars their bloom the while,
And steals from Nature's face its joyous smile;
And here and there, below,
The stream's meandering flow
Breaks on the view; and westward in the sky
The gorgeous clouds in crimson masses lie.
The hammer's clang rings out
Where late the Indian's shout
Startled the wild fowl from its sedgy nest,
And broke the wild deer's and the panther's rest.
The lordly oaks went down
Before the ax — the canebiake is a town;
The bark canoe no more
Glides noiseless from the shore;
And sole memorial of a nation's doom,
Amid the works of art rises this lonely tomb.
It, too, must pass away;
Barbaric hands will lay
Its holy ruins level with the plain,
And rear upon its site some goodly fane.
It seemeth to upbraid
The white man for the ruin he hath made.
And soon the spade and mattock must
Invade the sleepers' buried dust,
And bare their bones to sacrilegious eyes,
And send them forth some joke-collector's prize.
— "To the Old Mound," by Charles A. Jones, son of an old Cincin-
nati family, who died at Cumminsville in 1851.
THE ANCIENT PEOPLE.
The settlers of Losantiville, and afterwards the immi-
grants to Cincinnati for more than a generation and a
half, found the plainest indications that a numerous and
intelligent people had been here before them. The red
man had left few tokens of his occupancy, and those of
but the most insignificant character; but beneath the
deep shades of the luxuriant forest, overgrown by trees
of centuries' growth, upon both the upper and lower ter-
races, it is said, were the unmistakable remains of struct-
ures erected there by a strange, mysterious race, whose
very name, to say nothing of their history and tribal
relations, had long been covered by the dust of oblivion.
As Professor Short remarks, in his North Americans of
Antiquity :
The same sagacity which chose the neighborhood of St. Louis for
these works, covered the site of Cincinnati with an extensive system of
circumvallations and mounds. Almost the entire space now occupied
by the city was utilized by the mysterious Builders, in the construction
of embankments and tumuli built upon the most accurate geometrical
principles, and evincing keen military foresight.
ENCLOSURES AND EMBANKMENTS.
Almost every one of the leading classes of Mound
Builders' remains was represented in the Cincinnati
works. The chief work was probably a sacred enclosure,
since it had no ditch, and occupied a position offering
no special advantages for defence. It was an earth wall
or embankment, encircling the entire blocks now bound-
ed by Fourth and Fifth, Race arid Walnut streets, and
including some fractions of adjoining blocks. Its figure
was not mathematically exact, and was probably not
intended to be so. It was a very broad ellipsis, eight
hundred feet in diameter from east to west, and about
six hundred and sixty from north to south. An opening
or gateway ninety feet wide appeared on the east side of
the wall, upon or near the line of Fourth street. The
height of the work, as found by the pioneers, was scarcely
a yard, but the base of the embankment averaged ten-
yards in thickness. It was heaped up with loam similar
to that found in its immediate vicinity, and was of quite
uniform composition throughout, as discovered by subse-
quent excavation and removal. Nothing found inside
the main work indicated that manual labor had been
expended therein, the ground being somewhat irregular
and uneven, and evidently left by the Builders pretty
nearly in a state of nature. There was no ditch within
or without the walls. From each side of the gateway,
and exterior but contiguous to the wall, stretched away a
broad elevation or parapet, of somewhat indeterminate
figure. From that on the line of Fourth street could be
traced a bank of only twelve inches height, but with a
nine-foot base. It extended southward fifty to seventy-
five yards, until within a few yards of the edge of the
upper plain, or the "hill," as it was then called, when it
turned to the east, and ended in a mound at the present
junction of Main and Third streets, about five hundred
feet distant from the point of departure. No similar
wall from the other side of the gateway was observable •
but at a short remove north of it were two other eleva-
tions, isolated though near each other, over six feet high,
and probably artificial, though of shapeless form.
More than four hundred yards east of the work just
described, between Broadway and Sycamore streets, was
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
i5
a bank of about the same dimensions as to height and
thickness, which reached in a slight curve from Sixth
nearly to Third. The circle of which it was a segment,
whether ideal or embodied in earthwork, was an im-
mense one. "It was evidently," says Judge Burnet, in
his Notes, from which many of these facts are derived,
"a segment of a very large circle, with its centre just
south of the other work described." The remainder had
been left unfinished, or was leveled after construction.
From a point_near the south end of the segment formed
a low wall could be traced to the river, and was found to
correspond in a remarkable way, in height, extent, and
direction, with another embankment, about half a mile
distant, in the western part of the village site. Both of
these had disappeared by the year 1815.
Mr. Robert Clarke, in his pamphlet on the Pre-historic
Remains at Cincinnati, printed in 1876, is not inclined
to give credence to the story of this extension to the
river, "as it would extend the works to the bottom-land,
on which Mound Builder's works are seldom anywhere
found. It is more probable that this embankment
turned westward and joined the other embankment at
the mound."
Upon the present track of Fifth street, still east of all
the works mentioned, and about four hundred feet from
the segment, was a circular enclosure of sixty feet diam-
eter, bearing evidence of construction by heaping up
earth from the ground within. It was, when found, but
one foot high, on a twelve to fifteen-foot base.
In the north part of the old town, between Elm and
Vine streets, and six hundred yards from the great ellip-
sis (now between the canal and Fourth streets), were two
extensive earth walls, also of convex shape, but not con-
stituting an enclosure. They were each seven hundred
and sixty feet long, about two feet high, and ran in exact
parallels in a general east and west direction, forty-six
feet apart, measuring from the middle of the embank-
ment, for two-thirds of the way, when they converged
slightly to forty feet width, and so continued to the end.
At about the point where the convergence began, there
was an opening of thirty feet in the southern bank.
Many other inequalities of surface, upon sites more or
less irregular, were observable in the early day ; but by
the time the attention of antiquaries had been much di-
rected to them, twenty-five to thirty years after settlement,
they had become too obscure and ill-defined to warrant
detailed description. Strange to say, the plains on the
other side of the river, in Kentucky, did not present, ac-
cording to Judge Burnet, the slightest vestige of. ancient
earthworks.
TUMULI.
Upon the upper plain on which the principal part of
Cincinnati is located, were found several large mounds or
pyramids. The largest of these was due west of the great
ellipsis, and five hundred yards distant from it. It was
situated just where the alley between Fifth and Long-
worth streets intersects the west side of Mound street,
to which it gave the name ; and was formed, it is believed
from its composition, simply by scooping earth from the
surrounding surface and heaping it up smoothly. The
composition and structure of the mound were thus de-
scribed by Mr. John S. Williams, editor of the American
Pioneer, in volume II of that magazine:
The earth of the mound is composed of light and dark colored lay-
ers, as if it had been raised, at successive periods, by piling earth of
different colors on the top. This appearance might have been pro-
duced by successive layers of vegetation and freezings, which were
allowed to act on each layer before the mound received a second addi-
tion to its height. In some parts the layers are completely separated
by what appears to have been decayed vegetable matter, such as leaves
and grass, as the earth is in complete contact, except a very thin divis-
ion by some such substance. In some places through the mound there
are vacancies, evidently occasioned by the decay of sticks of wood,
leaving a most beautiful, impalpable powder. Throughout the mound
there are spots of charcoal, and in some places it is in beds. In one or
two places which we observed, the action of fire upon the clay had left
marks of considerable intensity.
The shape of its base was that of a regular ellipsis,
with diameters about in the ratio of two to one, and the
longer diameter in a line about seventeen degrees east of
north. It is described by one of the early local writers
as "a considerable mound of great beauty, about fifty [?]
feet high, constructed with great exactness, and standing
upon a base unusually small compared with its height."
The long diameter of the base was about seventy feet;
the shorter thirty-five. Its circumference was four hun-
dred and forty feet, and its height was twenty-seven
feet so lately as 1815, though about eight feet had
been cut from the top of it in 1794 by General Wayne,
who posted a sentinel, with a sentry-box, upon it, while
his army was encamped in the Mill Creek valley.
From its summit, it is said, a view of the entire plain
could be commanded; and it is a very interesting fact —
wholly u«ique, so far as we know, in the history of the
mounds — that this order of General Wayne restored the
structure for a time to what was doubtless its ancient
character and use in part, as a mound of observation.
Some superficial excavations were early made in this
mound, resulting in the finding of a few scattered human
bones, probably from intrusive burials, a branch of deer's
horn, and a piece of earthenware containing muscle shell.
Long afterwards (1841) the removal of the mound in the
grading of the street and alley, brought to light one of
the most interesting memorials of antiquity ever discov-
ered, which willl be noticed at some length below. The
lines "To the Old Mound," quoted at length at
the beginning of this chapter, were addressed to this
ancient remain. Three smaller mounds stood in the
close neighborhood of this, also containing human
remains. Five hundred feet north and somewhat
eastward of this work, near the northeast corner of
Mound and Seventh streets, was another, a platform
mound, probably about nine feet high, circular, and
nearly flat on top. In this were found a few fragments
of human skeletons and a handful of copper beads that
had formerly been strung on a cord of lint.
Northeast of this eminence, and several hundred yards
distant, on the east of Central avenue, opposite Rich-
mond street, near Court, was another circular mound but
three feet high, from which were taken unfinished spear-
and arrow-heads of chert or flint.
But the most remarkable of this class of the Cincin-
nati works which did not long survive the advent of the
i6
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
white man, was the mound at the intersection of Third
and Main streets, near the site of the older as well as the
later First Presbyterian churches. It was the mound
formerly mentioned as terminating the wall from the
great ellipsis, and was one hundred and twenty feet long,
sixty feet broad and eight feet high, of an oval figure,
with its diameters nearly on lines connecting the oppo-
site cardinal points of the compass. It was gradually
destroyed at an early day by the necessity of grading
Main street to reduce the difficulty of ascent from the
lower plain to the higher. The strata of which it was
composed, proceeding from without, were: First, a layer
of loam or soil like that upon the adjacent natural sur-
face. The articles found in the tumulus were a little be-
low this stratum. Second, a layer of large pebbles, con-
vex, like the outer one, and of uniform thickness. Lastly,
gravel, considerably heaped up in the centre, and contain-
ing no remains. Many interesting articles were found in
the process of excavation and removal — pieces of jasper,
rock crystal, granite, porphyry, and other rocks, mostly
cylindrical at the extremes and increasing in diameter
toward the middle, with an annular groove near one end,
and all evincing much skill of the Builders in cutting
and polishing the hardest rocks. Numerous other arti-
cles, made of cannel coal, argillaceous earth, and bone,
including the sculptured head of a bird, supposed to be
intended to represent that of an eagle; bits of isinglass
or mica, lead ore, and sheet copper, all supposed to be
used partly for ornament and partly in religious observ-
ances; with beads of bone or shell, the teeth of some
carniverous animal, probably the bear, and several large
marine shells; also a quantity of human bones, appar-
ently belonging to twenty or thirty skeletons, were found
in this work. The last mentioned remains were generally
surrounded by ashes and charcoal, and sometimes were
found enclosed in rude stone cists or coffins. The stra-
tum above these seemed to be undisturbed, and had evi-
dently been laid after the precious deposits were made.
One of the old writers also mentions among the discov-
eries in this mound certain other articles, "most proba-
bly deposited in it after Europeans began to visit here" —
as pieces of hard brown earthenware; the small image of
a female holding an infant in her arms and supposed to
represent the Virgin Mary, finely wrought in ivory but
somewhat mutilated; and a small, complex instrument
of iron, greatly corroded, and supposed to be used for
weighing light articles." The last two statements are de-
cidedly apocryphal, though Judge Burnet apparently
gives credence to them and repeats them in his Notes.
This ancient work was noticed very early by Colonel
Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory, in a letter
from Cincinnati, dated September 8, 1794, and enclos-
ing drawings of relics exhumed from a grove near the
mound. His correspondent, Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, of
Philadelphia, made them the theme of an elaborate let-
ter to Rev. Joseph Priestly, the famous Indian theo-
logian, philosopher and scientist; and the correspondence
was published, with illustrations, in volumes four and
five, of the transactions of one of the learned societies
of the Quaker city.
A DENUDED MOUND.
In 1874 Dr. H. H. Hill discovered a cluster of an-
cient graves on the extreme point of Brighton Hill, at
the west end of the range of hills north of the old city,
which Mr. Clarke thinks were once covered by a mound
that has been in the course of the ages washed away by
the rainfalls to or near the level of the original surface.
Many loose stones, in groups or piles, had been long ob-
served at this spot, and had been conjectured to be the
remains of an ancient stone work. The human remains
were included within a circular spot about forty feet in
diameter, and the bones were so greatly decomposed
that they soon fell to dust. From some indications in
the position of the bones there is reason to believe that
Indians were buried here, as well as Mound Builders.
Many teeth and tusks of animals, fragments of stag-horn,
with various implements made from bone, pieces of mica,
stone hammers, gorgets and pipes, spear and arrow-heads,
copper and bone awls, and fragments of shells with
traces of carving thereon, were aiso found in the burial-
place. It was a very interesting find. The mound sup-
posed to have stood over the remains and relics is that
designated by Mr. Clarke, in a quotation we shall make
hereafter, as the "Brighton Hill mound." It was also,
probably, one of the series of signal-mounds in the Mill
creek valley.
"dug-hole."
Over half a mile north of the ellipsis, which serves as
a convenient point of departure for distances to the
other works, was an excavation or "dug-hole," believed
to be artificial, but not apparently connected with any
other work. It was nearly fifty feet in diamete"r at the top,
as measured from the top of the circular bank formed
by throwing out the earth, and almost twelve feet in
depth; and was by some of the early settlers supposed
to be an old, half-filled well. It probably belonged,
however, to the age of the Mound Builders, and to the
class of ancient remains known as "dug-holes," origin-
ally intended as reservoirs for water or store houses of
provision.
a scholar's view.
General W. H. Harrison, in his instructive address be-
fore the Historical and Philosophical society of Ohio, in
1837, published in their transactions, and also in pamph-
let form, gave the following view of the works, as they
appeared in the white man's early day here:
When I first saw the upper plain on which that city stands, it was
literally covered with low lines of embankments. I had the honor to
attend General Wayne two years afterwards, in an excursion to examine
them. We were employed the greater part of a day, in August, 1793,
in doing so. The number and variety of figures in which these lines
were drawn, was almost endless, and, as I have said, almost covered the
plain— many so faint, indeed, as scarcely to be followed, and often for
a considerable distance entirely obliterated; but, by careful examination,
and following the direction, they could again be found. Now, if these
lines were ever of the height of the others made by the same people
(and they must have been to have answered any valuable purpose), or
unless their erection was many years anterior to the others, there must
have been some other cause than the attrition of rain (for it is a dead
level) to bring them down to their then state. That cause I take to
have been continued cultivation; and, as the people who erected them
would not themselves destroy works which had cost them so much labor,
the solution of the question can only be found in the long occupancy
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
17
and the cultivation of another people, and the probability is that that
people were the conquerors of the original possessors. To the ques-
tion of the fate of the former, and the cause of no recent vestige of set-
tlements being found on the Ohio, I can offer only a conjecture, but
one that appears to me to be far from improbable.
The general thought the occurrence of tremendous
floods, like those of 1793 and 1832, might be sufficient
to drive off the Builders, "not only from actual suffering,
but from the suggestions of superstition ; an occurrence
so unusual being construed into a warning from Heaven
to seek a residence upon the smaller streams."
THE WORKS IN 1817.
Many were still remaining. Judge Burnet, writing at
this time, notes them as " numerous here, and consisting
of two circular banks, mounds, tumuli, etc." A house
then stood at the corner of Mound and Third streets,
upon the site of the tumulus there. Several streets were
intersecting the remains, and they did not long thereafter
maintain their ground against the march of improvement,
which in time obliterated the last vestige of the monu-
ments of ancient civilization, so far as the surface of the
site of Cincinnati exhibited them.
THE WORKS IN 1819 AND 1 825.
The maps prefixed to the first and second directories
of the city, published in 1819 and 1825, however, take
notice of the existence and position of the enclosures
and mounds upon the site of Cincinnati, though not
precisely as they have been described above. One work,
the large ellipsis, is delineated as surrounding completely
the block between Fourth and Fifth, Race and Vine
streets, except a very small part of the northwest corner,
about half the next block east, and some parts of the
adjacent blocks north and south. Adjoining the north-
east part of it, on the north half of the block bounded
by Third, Fourth, Vine and Race streets, appears a large
mound, with a single embankment running almost due
south to the lower part of the block, and thence across
the next block eastward to the mound at the northeast
corner of Main and Third. The enclosure is represented
as an irregular circle, of about six hundred feet diameter.
The convex parallel walls between Canal and Twelfth
are shown as a long enclosure, extending almost diagon-
ally from a point a trifle east of Vine street across the
block bounded by that place and the streets before
named, and about half-way across the block next on the
west
Wayne's sentry-post is plainly marked as a large tumu-
lus at the southeast corner of Fifth and Mound, and the
others mentioned as being in the west and northwest-part
of the town are here — the mound upon the upper side
of Seventh street, below Smith, near fhe rope-walk then
standing; that on Western Row, nearly at the head of
Richmond ; one large mound west of Plum, near the old
corporation line on Liberty street; and also one in the
eastern part of the city, directly on Fifth street, half a
block beyond Broadway. The mound on Fourth street
stood nearly where Pike's Opera house now is.
Thus it appears that the ancient works upon the site of
Cincinnati were still so well defined, so late as 1825, as to
deserve, if not demand, a place upon the map of the city.
THE CINCINNATI TABLET.
In November, 1841, the large tumulus near the corner
of Fifth and Mound streets was removed, in order to
extend Mound street across Fifth and grade an alley.
A little above the level of the surrounding surface, near
the centre of the mound, were found a large part of a
human skull and two bones of about seven inches length,
pointed at one end. It was undoubtedly the grave of a
Mound Builder, probably a great dignitary of his tribe.
Under the fragmentary skull of the buried Builder was a
bed of charcoal, ashes and earth, and therein a very re-
markable inscribed stone which, after much discussion,
including the publication of Mr. Clarke's interesting
pamphlet in vindication of its authenticity, has been pro-
nounced a genuine relic of the period of the Mound
Builders. It is not lettered or inscribed with hieroglyph-
ics, but is marked with curious, broad lines, curves and
scrolls. Some have thought they could trace in these the
outline of a figure, perhaps an idol; but the better con-
jecture seems to be that it served for a record of calcula-
tions and a scale of measurement. The following de-
scription and remarks upon it are extracted from Messrs.'
Squier and Davis's "Ancient Monuments of the Missis-
sippi Valley":
The material is 'fine grained, compact sandstone of a light brown
color. It measures five inches in length, three in breadth at the ends,,
and two and six-tenths at the middle, and is about half an inch in thick-
ness. The sculptured face -varies very slightly from a perfect plane.
The figures are cut in low relief (the lines being not more than one-
twentieth of an inch in depth), and occupy a rectangular space of four
inches and two-tenths long by two and one-tenth wide. The sides of
the stone, it will be observed, are slightly concave. Right lines are
drawn across the face near the ends, at right angles, and exterior to
these are notches, twenty-five at one end and twenty-four at the other.
The back of the stone has three deep longitudinal grooves and several
depressions, evidently caused by rubbing — probably produced by sharp-
ening the instrument used in the sculpture. [Mr. Gest, however, the
present owner of the stone, does not regard these as tool marks, but
thinks they have some special significance. J
Without discussing the singular resemblance which the relic bears to
the Egyptian cartouch, it will be sufficient to direct attention to the re-
duplication of the figures, those upon one side corresponding with those
upon the other, and the two central ones being also alike. It will be ob-
served that there are but three scrolls or figures — four of one description
and two of the others. Probably no serious discussion of the question
whether or not these figures are hieroglyphical, is needed. They more
resemble the stalk and flowers of a plant than anything else in nature.
What significance, if any, may attach to the peculiar markings or grad-
uations at the end it is not undertaken to say. The sum of the products
of the longer and shorter lines (twenty-four by seven and twenty-five by
eight) is three hundred and sixty-eight, three more than the number of
days in the year; from which circumstance the suggestion has been ad-
vanced that the tablet had an astronomical origin and constituted some
sort of a calendar.
We may perhaps find the key to its purposes in a very humble, but
not therefore less interesting class of southern remains. Both in Mexico
and in the mounds of Mississippi have been found stamps of burnt clay,
the faces of which are covered with figures, fanciful or imitative, all in
low relief, like the face of a stereotype plate. These were used in im-
pressing ornaments upon the clothes or prepared skins of the people
possessing them. They exhibit the concavity of the sides to be ob-
served in the relic in question — intended, doubtless, for greater conveni-
ence in holding and using it — as also a similar reduplication of the
ornamental figures, all betraying a common purpose. This explanation
is offered hypothetically as being entirely consistent with the gen-
eral character of the mound remains, which, taken together, do not
warrant us in looking for anything that might not well pertain to a very
simple, not to say rude„people.
i8
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
AN INTERESTING THEORY.
The following discussion from Mr. Clarke's pamphlet
may appropriately end this little treatise on the Cincinnati
works :
It may be of interest here to examine these pre-historic works in the
light of Lewis H. Morgan's "pueblo" theory, as set forth in his article
in the North American Review for July of this year. The great cen-
tral work, an ellipse eight hundred by six hundred and sixty feet, cor-
responds with his pueblo or village. Its position gave it a measure of
security, being on the upper plain, three hundred and fifty feet from its
edge, and could be completely screened from view from the river by a
belt or grove of trees. The embankment, three feet high (possibly
originally higher), with a base of thirty feet, afforded sufficient founda-
tion for their buildings, occupying the circumference of the ellipse,
facing inward, presenting a solid timber wall on the outside, with no
entrance but by the gateway on the east, which may have been pro-
tected by a palisade of round timbers, with proper openings for ingress
and egress, and by some structures of the nature of block-houses on the
higher embankments attached externally at each side of the entrance.
From the lower of these block-houses, it will be remembered, ran the
low embankment, one foot high, with nine feet base, southward nearly
to the edge of the declivity, and then east to the mound on the corner
of Third and Main streets. This may have been occupied by a high
timber palisade, or a covered way leading to the mound, which was so
situated as to command a full view of the Licking river, which enters
the Ohio on the opposite shore, and was doubtless an important ap-
proach, which it was necessary should be watched. If I am right in
supposing that the embankment, of the same dimensions as the last,
noticed east of Sycamore, running from Sixth street to near Third
street, turned there and joined the other embankment at the mound,
and was built upon in the same manner, we would thus have the whole
front so defended that it would have to be forced or flanked by an
enemy coming from the.direction of the Licking river.
East of this high hill, Mount Adams, overlooking the Ohio, and giv-
ing a clear view up the river for miles, would be a natural outpost on ■
which it would not be necessary to erect a mound structure. I have
never heard of any remains having been found on this hill.
To the west, the hill next the river was so distant, and from its posi-
tion did not command an extensive enough view of the river to serve as
an outlook; so a position was selected near the edge of the plain, about
five hundred yards west of the closed end of the village, and a large
mound thirty-five feet high was erected, from which could be had an
extensive view of the Kentucky shore and of the Ohio, river to the bend
below the mouth of Mill creek. The Brighton Hill mound would give
an extensive view of the whole of Mill creek valley, the whole, as be-
fore mentioned, being part of an extensive series of signal stations.
The minor mounds and other works on the upper plain may have
been connected with the supervision and care of their agricultural oper-
ations on the rich land between the village and the northern hills.
Thus we have a village judiciously located on a fine, fertile plain, and
well guarded by the nature of the location and the artificial works
erected on a carefully arranged plan.
Mr. Morgan's theory will apply to a large number of the Ohio works.
The two larger mounds were so situated that we can hardly
avoid the conclusion, though it is only a supposition, that one object of
their erection was to serve as outlooks for watching the approaches to
their village from the Kentucky side of the river by the Licking, and
from the west by the Ohio. From the description of the structure of
the mounds and the remains found in them, it is quite certain that they
were also grave mounds. They may have been originally placed on
these commanding points so as to be seen from a distance (just as we
place rhonuments in prominent positions), and afterward used as out-
looks. Dr. Drake, as quoted above, gives sufficient details of the
structure and contents of that at the corner of Third and Main streets
to warrant this conclusion as to that mound.
ANCIENT VEGETABLE REMAINS.
Although not strictly belonging to the general topic of
this chapter, mention may here be fitly made of some
interesting "finds" that have been made upon the site
of Cincinnati, belonging to a period of ancient vegetation
of which many evidences are apparent in Hamilton
county, as will be seen upon reference to the second chap-
ter of this book, upon its geology and topography. In
1802 a well was dug by an ancient settler in the centre of
one of the artificial enclosures above described, and two
stumps, of twelve and eighteen inches' diameter, respec-
tively, were met with at a depth of ninety-three feet,
standing as they grew, with roots sound and in place.
From the soil that was thrown out in excavating the well
mulberry trees grew in large numbers, although none were
known to exist on the plain before. About the same
time Mr. Daniel Symmes, while digging another well in
the eastern part of the town, came upon a large unde-
cayed log twenty-four feet below the surface. It is said
that similar discoveries have frequently been made in
making deep excavations in different parts of the city,
showing that the ancient level of the plain was once far
below its present elevation.
CHAPTER III.
THE SITE OF LOSANTIVILLE.
The original site of Cincinnati, platted and surveyed
under the name of Losantiville, was contracted for before
the surveys of the Symmes Purchase were made, and the
conveyance to Mathias Denman simply specified that
his tract should be located as nearly as possible opposite
the mouth of the Licking river. When the surveys were
completed, it was found that he owned the entire section
eighteen, and the fractional section in seventeen lying be-
tween that and the river, in township four and the first
fractional range, as surveyed under the orders of the pros-
pective patentee, Judge Symmes. The tract covered
eight hundred acres, and including the outlots as well as
in-lots laid out upon it, comprised the original site of Cin-
cinnati. It extended, on a north and south line, from
the present Liberty street to the river. The eastern
boundary line ran from the intersection of the old Leb-
anon road with Liberty street to the Ohio, at a point one
hundred feet below Broadway; and the western line ran
from the intersection of Liberty street with the Western
row (Central avenue) to the river, which is reached just
below Smith street landing. This tract, a little less than
one and one-fourth square miles, was not quite one twen-
ty-second part of the present vast area of Cincinnati.
The founders of Losantiville found this site nearly or
quite in a state of nature, save the earthworks which in-
dicated its occupancy by a people long before departed.
Mr. E. D. Mansfield says it was the site of an old Indian
town, and other authorities say that two block-houses had
been erected hereby the soldiers of an expedition against
the Indians, only eight years previous ; but the records
of Losantiville are silent concerning the vestiges of the
Indian village and the white men's fortifications, if any
existed at this time. A dense wood covered the appar-
ently virgin tract. The lower belt of ground was occu-
pied mainly by beech, buckeye, and sugar trees, loaded
with grapevines, and interspersed with a heavy under-
growth of spicewood and pawpaws. The same timber
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
i9
prevailed upon the second terrace, with poplars and
other trees, some of which were very large. Many of
the beeches were also large, and a cluster of these, near
"Stonemetz's ford," on Mill creek, was still standing
sixty years after the settlement, and bore the name of
"Loring's woods" — the only relics of the primeval forest
here, except some scattered trees. A group of these trees
was also called the "Beechen grove" in an early day.
At the foot of Sycamore street was an inlet of consid-
erable size, which took the name of "Yeatman's cove,"
from its neighborhood to the tavern and store of Griffin
Yeatman, but also called the "Stone landing," because
used for the disembarking of the boatloads of stone
brought for the building of Fort Washington, at a spot
near what is now the corner of Sycamore and Front streets.
At the corner of Ludlow street was another inlet, called
"Dorsey's cove," and another still higher up, just below
the mouth of Deer creek. These little harbors were ex-
ceedingly convenient as landing-places for immigrants,
and were doubtless used also by the crews of boats con-
veying the earlier expeditions against the Indians. In
the shore end of Yeatman's cove the first, little, rude mar-
ket-house of the village was constructed, to the pillars of
which boats were usually tied in seasons of high water.
The north shore of the Ohio, and the ground for some
way back, as first observed by the whites at this point,
are described as somewhat resembling in appearance the
site of Philadelphia. Dr. Daniel Drake, writing twenty
years after the beginnings, when the physical features of
the place had not greatly changed, except by the partial
clearing of the woods, in his "Notices concerning Cincin-
nati," says:
Its site is not equally elevated. A strip of land called the Bottom
(most of which is inundated by extraordinary freshes, though the
whole is elevated several feet above the ordinary high-water mark),
commences at Deer creek, the eastern boundary of the town, and
stretches down to the river, gradually becoming wider and lower. It
slopes northwardly to the average distance of eight hundred feet, where
it is terminated by a bank or glacis, denominated the hill, which is
generally of steep ascent, and from thirty to fifty feet in height. In
addition to this there is a gentle acclivity for six or seven hundred feet
further back, which is succeeded by a slight inclination of surface
northwardly, for something more than half a mile, when the hills or
real uplands commence.
These benches of land extend northwestwardly (the upper one con-
stantly widening) nearly two miles, and are lost in the intervale ground
of Mill creek. The whole form an area of between two and three
square miles — which, however, comprehends but little more than a
moiety of the expansion which the valley of the Ohio has at this point.
For on the southern side, both above and below the mouth of the Lick-
ing river, are extended, elevated bottoms.
The hills surrounding this alluvial tract form an imperfectly rhom-
boidal figure. They are between three and four hundred feet high; but
the angle under which they are seen, from a central situation, is only a
few degrees. Those to the southwest and northwest, at such a station,
make the greatest and nearly an equal angle ; those to the southeast
and southwest also make angles nearly equal. .The Ohio enters at the
eastern angle of this figure, and, after bending considerably to the south,
passes out at the western. The Licking river entets through the south-
ern, and Mill creek through the northern angle. Deer creek, an incon-
siderable stream, enters through the northern side. The Ohio, both
up and down, affords a limited view, and its valley forms no consider-
able inlet to the east and west winds. The valley of the Licking af-
fords an entrance to the south wind, that of Mill creek to the north
wind, and that of Deer creek (a partial one) to the northeast. The
other winds blow over the hills that lie in their respective courses.
The Ohio is five hundred and thirty-five yards wide from bank to bank,
but at low-water is much narrower. No extensive bars exist, however,
near the town. Licking river, which joins the Ohio opposite the town,
is about eighty yards wide at its mouth. Mill creek is large enough for
mills, and has wide alluvions, which, near its junction with the Ohio, are
annually overflown [sic\. Its general course is from northeast to north-
west, and it joins the Ohio at a right angle. Ascending from these
valleys the aspects and characteristics of the surrounding country are
various. . . . No barrens, prairies, or pine lands are to be
found near the town.
Some notices of the site of Cincinnati in the early
day have been inserted in the first chapter of this divi-
sion of our work, and need not be repeated here. A
glowing paragraph by Mr. J. P. Foote, concerning the
hills in their pristine freshness, will be particularly re-
membered. The ground on the "bottom" was quite
broken and uneven; that on the "hill," or second ter-
race, was somewhat smoother. The bank which sepa-
rated them was sharp and abrupt;* and it was a serious
question with the fathers whether it should be cut
through by the streets with a steep or gentle gradient.
Happily for the horses and men employed in the im-
mense transfer business since that day, the problem was
solved in the sensible way that might have been expected
of the founders of the Queen City, although the cost-
lier. The grade of Main street, for example, was thus
in process of time extended along three squares, from
Second to Fifth streets (Third street being about one
hundred feet north of the original line of the bank),
with an angle of ascent of but five to ten degrees. The
constant change of level in the streets, in the progress
of improvement from year to year, made sad work with
the relations of sidewalks and pavements (or the spaces
where pavements ought to have been), and left many
buildings of the early day far above the streets on which
they once immediately fronted. Interesting anecdotes
are related of the foresight of some of the early business
men, who, at once upon the planning and laying founda-
tion of their buildings, went low enough with the latter
to meet the future exigencies of improvement. A writer
in the first number of Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, prob-
ably Mr. Cist himself, making some notes of "city
changes," says:
In the early part of the present century, Broadway, opposite John's
cabinet warehouse, was the center of a pond, three or four acres in ex-
tent, to which the early settlers resorted to shoot plovers.
The general level of upper Main street extended as far south as nearly
the line of Third street, part of the original surface of the ground being
preserved in some of the yards north of Third street to this date (Oc-
tober, 1844). It will readily be imagined what an impediment the
bluff bank overhanging the lower ground to the south, and repeatedly
caving in on it, must have created to the intercourse between the two
great divisions of the city — Hill and Bottom. But this statement, if it
were to end here, would not give an adequate idea how far the brow of
the hill overhung the bottom region ; for it must be observed that, while
the hill projected nearly forty feet above the present level where its edge
stood, the ground on Main street, opposite Pearl and Lower Market
streets, corresponded with the general level of these streets, which must
have been between thirteen and fourteen feet below the present grade.
The whole ground from the foot of the hill was a swamp, fed partly
from a cove which put in from the Ohio near what is now Harkness'
foundry, and in high water filled the whole region from the hill to with-
in about one hundred and fifty yards of the Ohio in that part of the
city from Walnut to Broadway — in early days the dwelling ground,
* An interesting remnant of the old bank at the brow of the hill — the
only one left, we believe — is still to be seen at the northwest corner of
Third and Plum streets. It is now a back yard, heaped up with old
iron.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
principally, of the settlers, as it still is the most densely built-on and
valuable part of Cincinnati.
The writer then relates some interesting facts of Casper
Hopple's old tobacco warehouse, on Lower Market street,
which was built upon boat-gunnels many years before —
material obtained by the breaking up of the primitive
river vessels. In his plan of building, Mr. Hopple had
the foresight to place the joists of the second story just
fourteen feet above the sills of the door to the first, say-
ing that that would be the proper range of the floor,
when Lower Market should be filled to its proper height;
which proved, quite remarkably, to be the case, so that
his second story became a first, and the first a cellar of
the right depth, as originally planned.
This entertaining antiquary also makes mention of
Captain Hugh Moore's building, nearly opposite this, on
the subsequent site of Bates & Company's hat warehouse,
which likewise had boat-gunnels for foundation, with
boat-plank for the inside walls, lined with poplar boards,
and a clapboard roof. It was, he thinks, perhaps thirty-
six feet deep and twenty feet front. Captain Moore se-
cured this building for the sale of his merchandise, it
being the only one he could secure for the purpose.
And now comes in the remarkable part of the narrative,
which makes it germane to this chapter:
"When he had bargained for the house, which he rent-
ed at one hundred dollars per annum, and which, with
the lot one hundred feet on Main by two hundred on
Pearl street, he was offered in fee simple at three hun-
dred and fifty dollars, he brought the flat-boat which was
loaded with his store-goods from the Ohio, via Hobson's
Choice, not far from Mill creek, up Second or Columbia
street, and fastened the boat to a stake near the door, as
nearly as can be judged the exact spot where the Museum
lamp-post now [1844] stands, at the corner of Main and
Pearl streets."
Upon the lower slope was a broad swamp, occupying
the larger part of the space between Second and Lower
Market streets, though a part stretched still further to the
south.
CHAPTER IV.
BEFORE LOSANT1VILLE.
AN INDIAN VILLAGE.
It is said, upon the authority of the late Hon. E. D.
Mansfield, who makes the remark in his Personal Me-
mories, that the Indians had anciently a town upon the
site of Cincinnati. Its natural advantages for the. pur-
poses of savage as well as civilized man, would of them-
selves argue that fact, though no other evidence should
exist in corroboration of the statement. Whatever that
evidence may be, the history of Indian occupancy at this
point has faded out as completely as that of the older
and more civilized Mound Builder in this garden spot of
the Ohio valley. Neither left a record in literature — not
even in that of the sculptured monument, if we except
the remarkable little object known as the "Cincinnati
stone," discovered in 1841 in the large mound near the
interse6tion of Fifth and Mound streets; and tradition is
equally silent, so far as the details of human life in a re-
moter Losantiville or Cincinnati are concerned. There
were the earthworks — most of them low and insignificant
in appearance, as they rose in slight eminence or wound
their way amid the monarchs of the forest — some so di-
minutive as to be scarcely distinguishable above the sur-
face ; and they were all that told of the presence of man
in congregated communities upon this area until Colonel
Patterson led his little band to their new homes in the
wilderness. Except for those, this was the forest prime-
val. Anything more would certainly have been noted and
recorded by the shrewd, intelligent men who were the
founders of the city.
TWO BLOCK-HOUSES.
The statement is made, however, by Mr. Isaac Smucker,
of Newark, in one of his interesting historical papers
published by the secretary of State in the official vohlmes
of Ohio Statistics (that for 1877 containing this), that
Colonel George Rogers Clark, with an army of about
one thousand men, all Kentuckians, "in 1780 crossed
the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking, and erected two
block-houses on the first day of August, upon the ground
now occupied by Cincinnati." Clark lTad organized the
expedition during the previous month, to march against
the Indian villages on the Little Miami and the Mad
rivers, to punish the Shawnees for their marauding in-
roads into the Kentucky settlements. After the reputed
erection of the block-houses — which must have been very
rapidly accomplished — he resumed the march, and on
the fifth day thereafter struck the Indian towns at the site
of Old Chillicothe, on the Little Miami. The Indians
had anticipated Clark's arrival, however, and themselves
applied the torch to their village, leaving little mischief
for the Kentuckians to do, except to destroy the ripening
corn. But at Piqua, a larger town and the birthplace of
the renowned Tecumseh, on the Mad river, about five
miles west of the present Springfield, the savages made a
stand, preparing an ambuscade in the high grass of a
prairie adjoining their lodges, and opened an unexpected
and deadly fire upon the invaders. The latter speedily
rallied and charged the Indians, who, after a desperate
fight, fled the field, losing about twenty dead, and the
Kentucky volunteers as many. The village and several
hundred acres of standing corn were laid waste. Colonel
Clark then returned to the mouth of the Licking, and
disbanded his force.
One member, and but one, we believe, of that band of
Indian fighters has left express testimony to the building
of the block-houses. Mr. Thomas Vickroy, who was
afterwards an assistant in the survey of the site of Pitts-
burgh, was out in this expedition. He says:
In April, 1780, I went to Kentucky, in company with eleven flat-
boats with movers. We landed, on the fourth of May, at the mouth of
Beargrass creek, above the falls of Ohio. I took my compass and
chain along to make a fortune by surveying, but when we got there the
Indians would not let us survey. In the same summer Colonel Byrd
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
came from Detroit with a few British soldiers and some light artillery,
with Simon Girty and a great many Indians, and took the forts on the
Licking. Immediately afterward General Clark raised an army of
about a thousand men, and marched with one party of them against
the Indian towns. When we came to the mouth of the Licking we
fell in with Colonel Todd and his party. On the first day of August,
1780, we crossed the Ohio river and built the two block-houses wheus
Cincinnati now stands. I was at the building of the block-houses.
Then, as General Clark had appointed me commissary of the cam-
paign, he gave the military stores into my hands and gave me orders to
maintain that post for fourteen days. Heleft with me Captain Johnson
and about twenty or thirty men, who were sick and lame.
Nothing more is said in history, so far as the writer of
these pages is aware, of these block-houses. The use of
the structures, during Clark's brief campaign to the
northward, is sufficiently indicated in Mr. Vickroy's
statement. As his force was not regularly recruited and
paid by the United States or any other constituted au-
# thority, there is not the least probability that a garrison
was left in it when his march was done and he recrossed
the Ohio. In that case the red men would make short
work of the obnoxious buildings as soon as they obtained
access to them. Such works were not commonly suf-
fered to remain upon lands unoccupied and undefended,
as defiant monuments of the hated "Long Knife." Fire
would speedily cause them to vanish in air, and the lapse
of more than eight years, with floods probably inunda-
ting their sites repeatedly, would so cover them with soil
and nature's tangled wildwood that the very clearings
made for them could not be recognized. We do not
learn that there is the faintest clue to the exact locality
of these block-houses. But the brief story of them is
exceedingly interesting, as that of the first occupancy in
houses of the site of Cincinnati by the white man,
August 1, 1780.
ONE BLOCK-HOUSE.
The fact that another block-house stood upon the site
of Cincinnati, more than six years before the Ludlow
and Patterson party came, seems to be clearly established
by similar testimony; not only that of a single person —
Mr. John McCaddon, for many years a respected citizen
of Newark, in this State, who was present at its building
— but also by that of two persons of far greater renown,
no less personages than General Simon Kenton and Major
James Galloway. General Clark was then making a sec-
ond expedition against the Miami towns, to avenge the
defeat of the Kentuckians at the battle of the Blue Licks
August 15, 1782. That disaster had aroused a fierce de-
sire for reprisals upon the Ohio Indians; and, as soon as a
force could be collected from the widely scattered settle-
ments, it marched in two divisions, under Colonels Lo-
gan and Floyd, for the., mouth of the Licking. Clark
crossed here with one thousand and fifty men, threw up a
block-house rapidly, and marched with such speed one
hundred and thirty miles up the Miami country, that the
Indians were thoroughly surprised. The principal Shaw-
nee town was destroyed November 10th; also the British
trading post at Loramie's store, in the present Shelby
county — the same locality visited by^hristopher Gist in
1752 — and he destroyed a large quantity of property and
some lives, with little loss. It was a very effective expe-
dition, especially as relieving Kentucky against formida-
able invasion.
Fifty years afterwards an address issued by the vener-
able pioneers and Indian fighters, Kenton and Galloway,
to call their comrades together for the semi-centennial
celebration of theis occupation opposite the Licking, con-
tained these words :
We will no doubt all recollect Captain McCracken. He commanded
the company of light horse, and Green Clay was his lieutenant. The
captain was slightly wounded in the arm at Piqua town, when within a
few feet of one of the subscribers, from which place he was carried on a
horse litter for several days ; his wound produced mortification, and he
died in going down the hill where the city of Cincinnati now stands.
He was buried near the block-ho^se we had erected opposite the mouth
of Licking, and the breastworks were thrown over his grave to prevent
the savages from scalping him.
We have also the separate confirmatory testimony of
Major Galloway, who was of the party of 1782, and re-
sided long afterwards in Greene county. Ht was well
known to many old citizens of Cincinnati. In a letter
written to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation to at-
tend the fifty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Cin-
cinnati, in 1833, he says:
In October, 1782, I accompanied General Clark on an expedition
against Pickaway and Loramie's town, and was within a few feet of the
lamented William McCracken when he received the wound of which he
died on his return, while descending the hill near which Cincinnati now
stands, and was buried near a block-house opposite the mouth of
Licking.
These cumulative testimonies would seem to place the
question of a pre-Losantiville block-house here in 1782 be-
yond doubt or cavil. But if further testimony was needed,
it is supplied by Mr. McCaddon, the old resident of New-
ark before mentioned, who was vouched for by the editor
of the American Pioneer as "a man of sterling integrity."
He wrote a letter to thai: magazine May 16, 1842, in
which he gives some account of the second expedition
of General Clark against the Miami Indian towns, and
says:
At the place where Cincinnati now is, it was necessary to build a
block-house, for the purpose of leaving some stores and some wounded
men we got of McGary's company. I may therefore say that, although
I did not cut a tree or lift a log, I helped to build the first house ever
built on that ground, for I was at my post in guarding the artificers
who did the labor of building. When this was done we penetrated
into the interior in search of Indians.
Mr. McCaddon's letter has especial value, as showing
the immediate purpose of the block-house. It is to be
regretted that neither he nor either of the other eye-wit-
nesses of its construction gives any hints of its location
upon the terraces of Cincinnati, nor any intimation that
he saw vestiges of the block-houses of 1780, or even the
spots where they stood, which must, within little more
than two years after their erection, have been easily rec-
ognizable. It is not a pleasant thought, also, that the
grave of Captain William McCracken, the brave soldier
who died of his wounds while being borne in a rude lit-
ter over the height afterward known as Key's Hill, and
later Mount Auburn, has remained wholly unmarked and
unrecognizable for near a hundred years. Somewhere
along the river front of Cincinnati rest his bones ; unless,
indeed, they have been disturbed by the excavating and
unsparing hand of city improvement, .and thrown out
undistinguished from the Indian and Mound Builder re-
mains, which command simply the curiosity and specu-
lation of the antiquary. The concealment of his re-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
mains, to prevent their desecration by the ruthless toma-
hawk or scalping knife, no doubt aided in the consign-
ment to oblivion of the place of his sepulture. But it
is singular that the "breastworks" noted by General
Kenton as having been thrown over his grave were not
remarked by the first colonists here nor by the subse-
quent inquirers; since they must have been of a charac-
ter quite distinct from the remains of the Mound Build-
ers. They were probably but slight, and may soon have
become obliterated by the action of rain and flood.
Captain McCracken, wheff at this point bn his way
northward with the command, believed he had a clear
presentiment of approaching death in a remarkable
dream the night before he left the spot, and desired all
his associates who might be living fifty years from that
date, in case he should be killed on that expedition, to
meet at the same place, and celebrate their brief occupa-
tion as a mark of respect to his memory, and mark the
wonderful changes which would probably then have oc-
curred. It was agreed to by nearly all present; and an
attempt was made in 1832, as we have seen, to get -the
surviving comrades together for the celebration; but it
was the cholera year in Cincinnati and elsewhere in the
west, and only a few old men gathered, under circum-
stances of depression and sorrow, to honor the memory
of the departed soldier. They, however, banqueted at
one of the hotels, at the expense of the corporation, and
spent a few hours with interest in the interchange of
reminiscences and notes of more recent personal expe-
rience.
ANOTHER BRIEF MILITARY OCCUPATION
probably occurred somewhere upon or near the site of
Losantiville three years later — a very brief and unim-
portant one just here, but more prolonged and of con-
siderable consequence elsewhere within the bounds of
Hamilton county. As the story forms a very interesting
episode in pre-Losantiville annals, it may well be told
here, although most of it has little immediate relation to
the famous site opposite the mouth of the Licking.
In the early fall of 1785, General Richard Butler, of
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, one of the commissioners of the
United States Government (Generals Samuel H. Parsons
and George Rogers Clark being the others) appointed
to make treaties with the western and northern Indians,
left his home, under instructions to proceed to the Mi-
amis and negotiate a treaty there. He kept a full diary
of his journey, which has been preserved, and is thor-
oughly entertaining and valuable in all parts. He left
Carlisle in company with "the Hon. Colonel James
Monroe, a member of Congress from the State of Vir-
ginia, a gentleman very young for a place in that honor-
able body, but a man well-read, very sensible, highly im-
pressed with the consequence and dignity of the Federal
Union, and a determined supporter of it in its fullest lat-
itude." The world heard something more of this young
"Hon. Colonel" afterwards. He continued with the
general's party in the voyage down the Ohio until Lime-
stone was reached, where he obtained horses and went
to Lexington. They got on prosperously in the pleasant
autumn weather, and in due time neared the Miami
country. The following extracts are from General But-
ler's entries of Friday, October 21st:
Sailed at half-past two o'clock; passed the mouth of the little Mi-
amis at three o'clock. It is so low there was no water running [!];
above the sand-bank, which is off its mouth, the land is quick, and the
little water which issues from it passes through the sand. The bottoms,
both above and below, is very flat and low, and I think inundated with
small floods. About two miles below is a piece of high ground, which
I think will be the site of a town, as will be the case at the mouths of
all the principal rivers and creeks of this great country.
Below the mouth of this little river about two miles is a very large bank
of sand, at which Mr. Zane came in for people to bring in two deers.
Pushed on to the mouth of Licking creek, which is a pretty stream;
at the mouth, both above and below, is very fine bottoms. The bottom
below' the mouth [the site of Covington] seems highest and most fit to
build a town on; it is extensive, and whoever owns the bottoms should
own the hill also. Passed this at five o'clock; and encamped two miles
below on the north side [of course far within the present limits of Cin-
cinnati. This was the most distinguished company this locality had so
far had the honor to entertain.]
There is great plenty of limestone and coal appears on every strand
[what could the general have mistaken for coal here?]. Here is a very-
fine body of bottom land to a small creek four miles below Licking
creek. [This may have been Mill creek; but, if so, the general was far
out in his reckoning of distance. . If his measure is to be taken with
approximate exactness, the stream was of course Bold Face creek,
which enters the river at Sedamsville.]
A noteworthy bit of local tradition, relating to the
Kentucky side, comes here in Butler's journal:
I am informed that a Captain Bird [Colonel Byrd], of the British,
came in the year 1780 from Detroit, down the big Miamis, thence up
the Ohio to the mouth of Licking creek, thence up= it about fifty miles
with their boats. At this place they took their artillery, and cut a road
fifty miles into the country, where they attacked several places, and
took them; they then carried off the poor, distressed people with their
little ones to Detroit in triumph.
This was the expedition spoken of by Vickroy, of six
hundred Canadians and Indians, with six cannon, in the
summer of r78o, against RiiddelFs Station, below the.
mouth of Hinkston fork, on the south fork of the Lick-
ing. It was mainly remarkable for its approach to the
station, cutting its way through the dense woods for twelve
days, without the advance being noticed by the garrison.
The post was surrendered, on condition that the British
should protect the prisoners from the Indians, which
they were unable to do, as the savages, at once after
possession was given, rushed upon the hapless people,
and divided them as captives among themselves. So dis-
gusted was Colonel Byrd by their conduct that he refused
to move against Martin's Station, unless they would leave
all prisoners taken there to him. They agreed to this,
and for once kept their word, upon the surrender of the
station without resistance. It was intended also to at-
tack Bryant's Station and Lexington; but Byrd, who
seems to ha\ce been a humane and brave man, decided
to end the expedition without their capture. It was the
seizure of Riiddel's and Martin's Stations, however, with
the carrying of a large number of men, women and chil-
dren into Indian captivity, that prompted Clark's first
expedition against the Miami towns.
To return to General Butler's party. The banks of
the Licking were afterwards a favorite resort for the hunt-
ers of the party, to hunt buffalo. Further up the Ohio
an enormous beast of this kind had been killed. Gen-
eral Butler writes that its head weighed one hundred and
thirty-five pounds, that in life it must have stood over
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OIHO.
23
six feet high, and that its total weight was at least fifteen
hundred pounds.
The country between a point six miles below the Lick-
ing and the mouth of the Great Miami is thus described;
"On»mile from this is a bar of sand in the middle of
the river; the channel is on the north shore. Here are
the dreadful effects of a tornado on the hill ; on the north
side, from the top down, every tree and the surface of
the earth has been washed or blown off. On the south
shore there is about four acres of land, the timber of
which is totally blown down, which I think will be suffi-
cient for mills part of the season, as it comes out of a
hilly country; it has thrown out a great body of gravel,
etc., which forms a kind of Presque Isle, on the south
side of the river. . . Two miles below this
comes in a small creek, just above which is most excel-
lent land on the face of a beautiful hill. The river is
beyond description, deer and turkey sporting before and
on each side in great abundance — saw above twenty
deers before twelve o'clock. Put in to dine about eleven
o'clock about twelve miles below Licking creek.
"Sailed at half past one o'clock, the wind ahead.
Here is some very fine lands covered with pine, ash, and
other rich timber. Pushed on to the Great Miami, above
the mouth of which I ordered the whole to encamp
about five o'clock in the evening. I went out with Ma-
jor Finney to examine the ground for a post."
The general was instructed by a resolution of Congress
to plant a military station at any eligible point between
the Miami and Muskingum rivers; and although recom-
mended by General Clark, who was at a little fort a few
miles below, to select a site beyond the Great Miami, he
preferred to remain on the east side, in accordance with
his instructions, and chose a spot on the higher ground,
afterwards on the farm of the Hon. John Scott Harrison,
which was cleared, and the erection of four blockhouses
and a quadrangular work begun October 25, 1785.
Within three days two block-houses were "in a tolerable
state of defense, and a third well forward." The party,
and the troops with it, commanded by Major Finney and
Lieutenant Doyle, were subsisted mainly on bear's meat,
buffalo and other game October 30 one Captain John-
ston, a settler from below, proposed to have a road marked
from Lexington to the fort, which Generals Clark and
Butler warmly seconded. A store-house was presently
built for the goods brought to facilitate negotiations with
the Indians. Chimneys were built of stones picked up
in the neighborhood. November 13th General Parsons,
another of the commissioners for Indian affairs, arrived
from above, with a boat-load of salt provisions; and
there were several other arrivals the same day, of people
bound to the falls of the Ohio and other points.
The fort here erected was called "Fort Finney," in
honor of the gallant major who commanded the garrison.
The following description of it, by Judge Hall, though
probably colored somewhat, for his Romance of Western
History, is no doubt sufficiently near the facts to warrant
its quotation here:
In the eye of a military engineer the fort would hardly have deserved
that name, as it was a temporary structure, intended only to protect its
small garrison against a sudden attack by an Indian force. It was
composed of a series of log houses opening upon an interior area or
quadrangle, with a block house or citadel in the centre, while the outer
sides, closely connected, permit a square inclosure or rampart, without
apertures, except a single entrance and a few loop-holes from which to
discharge fire-arms. The whole presented the appearance of a single
edifice, receiving light from the centre and forming barracks for the gar-
rison, as well as breastworks against a foe. The forest was cleared
away for some hundreds of yards around, leaving an open vista ex-
tending to the water's edge, while a few acres enclosed in a rude fence
and planted with corn and garden vegetables, for the use of the soldiers,
exhibited the first rude attempt at agriculture in that wild and beautiful
region.
A council-house was put up to accommodate the
Indians, who gradually gathered in and about it; and,
while awaiting the arrival of others to hold a pow-wow
over the proposed treaty, and being supplied with rum
and whiskey by the commissioners, they soon became
drunken and troublesome, and importunate in their
demands. Finally, by the last of January, after a great
deal of difficulty, the representatives of various tribes
were got together at the fort, in numbers reported by
General Butler as forty-seven Delawares, eighty-three
Wyandots, and three hundred and eighteen Shawnees, .
four hundred and forty-eight in all, counting all ages and
sexes. It was a large number to be dependent mainly
on the supplies of the Government. No Wabash Indians
were present, on account of hostility inspired by the
British. The American traders and the Kentucky peo-
ple, strange to say, seemed also opposed to a treaty, and
did what they could to prevent it. Those Indians who
came were in bad temper, and at times haughty and dis-
respectful. Out of an incident arising from this spirit
Judge Hall, the voluminous and entertaining writer,
formerly of Hamilton county, has woven a romantic
story, which is thus prettily told in a chapter of his
Romance of Western History, entitled, The War Belt:
A Legend of North Bend:
An apartment in the fort was prepared as a council-room, and at
the appointed hour the doors were thrown open. At the head of the
table sat Clark, a soldier-like and majestic man, whose complexion,
eyes, and hair all indicated a sanguine and mercurial temperament.
The brow was high and capacious, the features were prominent and
manly, and the expression, which was keen, reflective, and ordinarily
cheerful and agreeable, was bow grave almost to sternness.
The Indians, being a military people, have a deep respect for martial
virtue. To other estimable or shining qualities they turn a careless eye
or pay at best but a passing tribute, while they bow in profound venera-
tion before a successful warrior. The name of Clark was familiar to
them : several brilliant expeditions into their country had spread the
terror of his arms throughout their villages and carried the fame of his
exploits to every council-fire in the west. Their high appreciation of
his character was exemplified in a striking as well as an amusing manner
on another occasion, when a council was held with several tribes. The
celebrated Delaware chief, Buckinghelas, on entering the council-room,
without noticing any other person, walked up to Clark, and as he shook
hands cordially with him exclaimed, " It is a happy day when two such
men as Colonel Clark and Buckinghelas meet together."
Such was the remarkable man who now presided at the council-table.
On his right hand sat Colonel Richard Butler, a brave officer of the
Revolution, who soon after fell, with the rank of brigadier general, in
the disastrous campaign of St. Clair. On the other side was Samuel
H. Parsons, a lawyer from New England, who afterwards became a
judge in the Northwestei n Territory. At the same table sat the secre-
taries, while the interpreters, several officers, and a few soldiers, sat
around.
An Indian council is one of the most imposing spectacles in savage
life. It is one of the few occasions in which the warrior exercises his
right of suffrage, his influence and his talents, in a civil capacity ; and
24
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
the meeting is conducted with all the gravity and all the ceremonious
ostentation with which it is possible to invest it. The matter to he con-
sidered, as well as all the details, are well digested beforehand, so that
the utmost decorum shall prevail and the decision be unanimous. The
chiefs and sages, the leaders and orators, occupy the most conspicuous
seats ; behind them are arranged the younger braves, and still further
in the rear appear the women and youth, as spectators. All are equally
attentive. A dead silence reigns throughout the assemblage. The
great pipe, gaudily adorned with paint and feathers, is lighted and
passed from mouth to mouth, commencing with the chief highest in
rank, and proceeding, by regular gradations, to the inferior order of
braves. If two or three nations be represented, the pipe is passed from
one party to the other, and salutations are courteously exchanged, be-
fore the business of the council is opened by the respective speakers.
Whatever jealousy or party spirit may exist in the tribe, it is carefully
excluded from this dignified assemblage, whose orderly conduct and
close attention to the proper subject before them might be imitated with
profit by some of the most enlightened bodies in Christendom.
It was an alarming evidence of the temper now prevailing among
them and of the brooding storm that filled their minds, that no pro-
priety of demeanor marked the entrance of the savages into the coun-
cil-room. The usual formalities were forgotten or purposely dispensed
with, and an insulting levity substituted in their place. The chiefs and
braves stalked in with an appearance of light regard, and seated them-
selves promiscuously on the floor, in front of the commissioners. An
air of insolence marked all their movements, and showed an intention
to dictate terms or to fix a quarrel upon the Americans.
A dead silence rested over the group; it was the silence of dread, dis-
trust, and watchfulness, not of respect. The eyes of the savage band
gloated upon the banquet of blood that seemed already spread out be-
fore them ; the pillage of the fort and the bleeding scalps of the Ameri-
cans were almost within their grasp; while that gallant little band saw
the portentous nature of the crisis and stood ready to sell their lives
as dearly as possible. *
The commissioners, without noticing the disorderly conduct of the
other party or appearing to have discovered their meditated treachery,
opened the council in due form. They lighted the peace-pipe, and,
after drawing a few whiffs, passed it to the chiefs, who received it.
Colonel Clark then rose to explain the purpose for which the treaty
was ordered. With an unembarrassed air, with the tone of one accus-
tomed to command, and the easy assurance of perfect security and
self-possession, he stated that the commissioners had been sent to offer
peace to the Shawanoes; that the President had no wish to continue
the war; he had no resentment to gratify ; and that, if the red men de-
sired peace, they could have it on liberal terms. "If such be the will
of the Shawanoes," he concluded, "let some of their wise men speak."
A chief arose, drew up his tall person to its full height, and assum-
ing a haughty attitude, threw his eye contemptuously over the com-
missioners and their small retinue, as if to measure their insignificance,
in comparison with his own numerous train, and then, stalking up to
the table, threw upon it two belts of wampum of different colors — the
war and the peace belt.
The chiefs drew themselves up, in the consciousness of having
hurled defiance in the teeth of the white men. They had offered an
insult to the renowned leader of the Long Knives, to which they knew
it would be hard for him to submit, while'they did not suppose he would
dare to resent it. The council-pipe was laid aside, and those fierce,
wild men gazed intently on Clark. The Americans saw that the crisis
had arrived; they could no longer doubt that the Indians understood
the advantage they possessed, and were disposed to use it; and a com-
mon sense of danger caused each eye to be turned on the leading com-
missioner. He sat undisturbed, and apparently careless, until the chief
who had thrown the belts on the table had taken his seat; then, with a
small cane which he heldin his hand, he reached as if playfully towards
the war-belt, entangled the end of the stick in it, drew it towards him,
and then, with a twitch of the cane, threw the belt into the midst of the
chiefs. The effect was electric. Every man in council, of each party,
sprang to his feet; the savages with a loud exclamation of astonishment,
"Hugh!" the Americans in expectation of a hopeless conflict against
overwhelming numbers. Every hand grasped a weapon.
Clark alone was unawed. The expression of his countenance
changed to a ferocious sternness, and his eye flashed; but otherwise he
was unmoved. A bitter smile was slightly perceptible upon his com-
pressed lips, as he gazed upon that savage band, whose hundred eyes
were bent fiercely and in horrid exultation upon him, as they stood like
a pack of wolves at bay, thirsting for blood, and ready to rush upon
him whenever one bolder than the rest should commence the attack,
It was one of those moments of indecision when the slightest weight
thrown into either scale will make it preponderate; a moment in which
a bold man, conversant with the secret springs of human action, may
seize upon the minds of all around him and sway them at his will.
Such a man .was the intrepid Virginian. He spoke, and there was no
man bold enough to gainsay him — none that could return 4he fierce
glance of his eye. Raising his arm, and waving his hand towards the
door, he exclaimed; ' Dogs/ you may go I' The Indians hesitated for
a moment, and then rushed tumultuously out of the council-room.
The decision of Clark on that occasion saved himself and his com-
panions from' massacre. The plan of the savages had been artfully
laid; he had read it in their features and conduct, as plainly as if it had
been written upon a scroll before him. He met it in a manner which
was unexpected; the crisis was brought on sooner than was intended;
and upon a principle similar to that by which, when a line of battle is
broken, the dismayed troops fly before order can be restored, the new
and sudden turn given to these proceedings by the energy of Clark con-
founded the Indians, and before the broken thread of their scheme of
tieachery could be reunited, they were panic-struck. They had come
prepared to browbeat, to humble, and then to destroy; they looked for
remonstrance and altercation ; for the luxury of drawing the toils gradu-
ally around their victims; of beholding their agony and degradation,
and of bringing on the final catastrophe by an appointed signal, when
the scheme should be ripe. They expected to see, on our part, great
caution, a skillful playing-off, and an unwillingness to take offence,
which were to be gradually goaded into alarm, irritation and submis-
sion. The cool contempt with which their first insult was thrown back
in their teeth, surprised them, and they were foiled by the self-posses-
sion of one man. They had no Tecumthe among them, no master-
spirit to change the plan, so as to adapt it to a new exigency; and
those braves who, in many a battle, had shown themselves to be men of
true valor, quailed before the moral superiority which assumed the
vantage-ground of a position they could not comprehend, and there-
fore feared to assail.
This is a very neat romance, but unhappily it is not
historic truth. Judge Hall doubtless based his account
upon the narrative of the event in the old Encyclopaedia
Americana, which in turn rests upon the notes of an old
officer, who is said to have been present. These, how-
ever, simply say that the Indian spokesman, "a tall, raw-
boned fellow, with an impudent and villainous look,'7
presented "a black and white wampum, to signify they
were prepared for either event, peace or war. Clark ex-
hibited the same unaltered and careless countenance he
had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on
his left hand and his elbow resting upon the table. He
raised his little cane and pushed the sacred wampum off
the table, with very little ceremony.''
Another officer who was in the garrison of Fort Finney
at this time, but who may not have been in the council-
room on this occasion, gives in his diary a slightly differ-
ent narrative. This was Ensign (afterwards Major) Ebe-
nezer Denny, whose military journal was published by
the Historical society of Pennsylvania in i860. He re-
cords, under date of January 27, 1786:
Shawnees met in council house. . . The Ohio river they
would agree to, nothing short ; and offered a mixed belt, indicating
peace or war. None touched the belt— it was laid on the table ; Gen-
eral Clark, with his cane, pushed it off and set his foot on it. Indians
very sullen. . . Council broke up hastily. Some commotion
among the Shawnees. Returned same afternoon and begged another
meeting, when their old king, Molunthy, rose and made a short speech,
presented a white string, doing away all that their chief warrior had
said, prayed that we would have pity on women and children.
This account is repeated- in most particulars by the re-
port made by Ensign Denny to Colonel Harmar ten days
afterwards; though in this he says nothing of Clark's con-
nection with the incident. He writes in a long letter
under date of February 8th :
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
25
The commissioners did not attempt to touch the string which was
given, and without rising determined on an answer. . . Coun-
cil was not broke up more than fifteen minutes when a message came
for the commissioners. After they had assembled, the chief took a
white string and destroyed the whole of his former speech.
The exact truth is undoubtedly told in the journal of
General Butler, who was really the chief personage in
these transactions. It is a simple, straightforward, sol-
dierly account, bearing every aspect of truth. According
to this, after a rather defiant speech by Kekewepelletry,
refusing hostages and other demands of the commission:
ers, he closed by throwing upon the table a black string
of wampum. The commissioners then held a confer-
ence, and Butler stepped forward to reply, which he did
at some length, concluding as follows :
We plainly tell you that this country belongs to the United States —
their blood hath defended it, and will forever protect it. Their propo-
sals are liberal and just ; and you, instead of acting as you have done,
and instead of persisting in your folly, should be thankful for the for-
giveness and the offers of kindness of the United States, instead of the
sentiments which this string imparts and the manner in which you
have delivered it. (I then took it up and dashed it on the table. ) We
therefore leave you to consider of what hath been said, and to determine
as you please.
No such dramatic scene as the eulogists of General
Clark have depicted appears to have occurred. The In-
dians were, however, brought to terms only with difficulty,
and after much negotiation and many presents; but at
length, on the second of February, 1786, a treaty was
signed which compelled the Shawnee Indians to acknowl-
edge the supremacy of the United States over all the ter-
ritory ceded by England at the close of the Revolution,
allotted and defined the reservation of the Shawnees,
and provided for hostages and the return of white cap-
tives. Two whites named Pipe and Fox, and a little boy,
were given up, and six young men of the Indians were
left as hostages for the punctual fulfillment of the treaty.
croghan's visit.
The whites, however, as is well known to students of
local history, were on the river and casually at this point
many years before the military and diplomatic expedi-
tions whose story is told.
In 1765 Colonel George Croghan came down the Ohio
on an errand to Vincennes and Detroit, as commissioner
for Sir William Johnson, to visit the French inhabitants
at those points, and enlist their sympathies in behalf of
the English, in the hope of obviating further Indian
wars. He left an interesting journal of his voyage. Set-
ting off from Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) on the fifteenth of
May, in that year, with two batteaux and a considerable
party of white men and Indians, he in a few days reached
the region and made the following entries in his record.
29th. We came to the Little Miame river, having proceeded sixty
miles last night.
30th. We passed the great Miame river about thirty miles from the
little river of that name, and in the evening arrived at the place where
the Elephant's bones are found [Big Bone lick], where we encamped,
intending to take a view of the place next morning. This day we
came about seventy miles. The country on both sides level, and rich
bottoms well watered.
In penning the last remark Croghan had doubtless in
mind a lively recollection of the broad, beautiful Cincin-
nati basin which he had that day passed. He was taken
by the Indians nine days after the last entry cited, and
carried by them to Vincennes.
SETTLEMENTS AND INCIDENTS.
Some years after this, it is related that three brothers,
James, George and John Medfee, of Botetourt county,
Virginia, set their longing eyes upon the Miami country,
intending, if they found it as desirable in all important
respects as was described to them, to settle the wild but
very hopeful tract of which they had heard, opposite the
mouth of the Licking — otherwise they would go on to
the settlements on the Salt river, in Kentucky, where
they had acquaintances from the Old Dominion. About
the beginning of June, 1773, they set out for the wilder-
ness west. Procuring canoes at the Kanawha, they
floated down that stream with considerable velocity by
reason of an enormous freshet — twelve feet, as the tradi-
tions relate, above the great inundations of 1832 and
1847. It is supposed that it was this flood the height of
which was marked, by these visitors or the Indians, upon
a tree standing below Fort Washington, and which was
pointed out by the latter as indicating the reach of the
greatest height of the river they had known, either by
personal experience or by tradition. Rushing out from
the Kenawha upon the broad bosom of the Ohio, they
were borne rapidly down that also. The mighty valley
of the Beautiful River was full, almost from bluff to bluff;
and when they arrived at the site of the future Losanti-
ville and Cincinnati scarcely any tracts were in sight,
below the heights, except water lots. Dismayed with
the appearance of things, and not having the patience
to wait for a more favorable season, they pushed on
to their Kentucky friends, and, after a brief visit to their
homes in Virginia, settled in the former State and became
the heads of prominent Kentucky families. Such was
the first abortive attempt at colonizing the Miami coun-
try that is on record.
In 1780, the father of General William Lytle — who
(the general) became afterwards a citizen of Williams-
burgh and then of Cincinnati, lived here in very honor-
able prominence for many years, and died in this city
March 8, 1 831— came down the river with the largest
fleet of boats and company of immigrants that had been
known to that time. It comprised sixty-three of the
primitive craft then navigating the Ohio, conveying a
number of men capable of bearing arms said to have
been equal to one thousand, besides their women and
children. About ten o'clock in the forenoon of the
twelfth of April, the occupants of the boats which were
leading espied an encampment of Indians on the north
side of the stream, opposite the debouchure of the Lick-
ing. Intelligence of danger was at once conveyed back
to the fleet, and three large boats were directed to land
above the camp, in a concerted order. Half the fighting
men were to leap ashore the moment the boats should
touch; and, stopping only to form in .column, they
charged the Indian village. The latter, however, in
number variously estimated at one hundred and fifty to
five hundred, did not wait for actual contact with their
enemies, but incontinently fled, in their haste and disor-
26
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
der abandoning many of their poor valuables. They
were pursued to Mill creek and up the valley to a point
beyond the present locality of Cumminsville. Several
Indians were mounted, and got away easily; the others
were suffered to escape. The whites returned to their
boats, and moved on to the mouth of Beargrass creek,
now Louisville, where their projected settlement was
effected.
The relation of Mr. John McCaddon, afterwards a res-
ident of Newark, in this State, avers that he sailed down
the Ohio in May of the same year, and afterwards, at
Louisville, joined the expedition of George Rogers
Clark against the Shawnees. Below the site of Cincin-
nati a detachment of their force, which had chosen to
march on the north side of the river, on account, they
said, of more abundant game, while the main body kept
to the Kentucky shore, became alarmed at the fresh
signs of Indians, and took to their boats, intending to
cross the river and rejoin their fellows, who had kept
abreast of them. They had, however, got but a few
yards from the bank when they were -fired upon and
thrown into confusion by a party of Indians ; but before
they reached the shore they heard the "scalp halloo''
from the top of the hill, and knew that the Indians
were in full retreat. It is probable that the wounded
men of McGary's company, mentioned by Mr. McCad-
don in his letter concerning the block-house, were hurt
in this affair, since it was his command that was thus
attacked.
In 1785, a party which included William West, John
Simons, John Seft, a Mr. Carlin, and their families, also
John Hurdman, all of Washington county, Pennsylvania,
visited this region with a view to settlement. Passing
the site of the Queen City to be, they landed at the
mouth of the Great Miami, it is thought in April, and
explored its valley as far as the subsequent site of Ham-
ilton. They made improvements at sundry points where
they found bottom lands finer than the rest; but do not
appear to have remained permanently in the country.
In the fall Hurdman came down the river, and found at
its mouth Generals Clark, Butler, and Parsons, with Ma-
jor Finney and his soldiers, about to construct the fort
and make a treaty with the Indians. Almost the only
matter which connects him or this incident closely with
the history of Cincinnati is the, fact that he was with the
party of Symmes, three years afterwards, when there
wandered away to his death John Filson, one of the pro-
prietors of Losantiville.
In September of 1788 five gentlemen, from a station
near Georgetown, Kentucky, came in two canoes to the
mouth of Deer creek, up the bank of which they pro-
ceeded on foot about one hundred and fifty yards, when
they were fired upon by a concealed savage, and one of
them, named Baxter, was killed. He was buried at a
spot just below the mouth of the creek, where, many
years afterwards, a skeleton was found by a party of boys,
the skull of which had a bullet rattling inside of it. It
is some satisfaction to record that the Indian who shot
poor Baxter was pursued by the rest of the party and
brought down.
"MIAMI."
The last mention of the Cincinnati region by a geo-
graphical designation, before the incoming of Denman's
colony, was doubtless by Judge Symmes, in his letter to
Dayton, from Limestone (Maysville), October 12, 1788,
referring to the unlucky expedition in which Filson was
lost. The judge says: "On the twenty-second ult. I
landed at Miami, and explored the country as high as
the upper side of the fifth range of townships." The
point at which he stepped ashore, and to which he casually
and temporarily gave the general name of the region, was
undoubtedly the Losantiville site, since here he met the
party of Kentuckians, led by Patterson and Filson, who,
in accordance with the public notice about to be set out in
full in the next chapter, had "blazed" a road through the
deep woods between Lexington and this place. They
made up the major part of the escort which accompanied
Symmes in the exploration that immediately followed into
the interior.
CHAPTER V.
LOSANTIVILLE.
By this time the reader who has followed patiently the
pages of this volume will have no difficulty in under-
standing the considerations that probably determined the
settlement of Losantiville. Probably no intelligent trav-
eller had ever passed down the Ohio without noting the
eligibility of this beautiful and otherwise singularly fa-
vored spot as the site of a settlement which might be-
come a great city. The Mound Builder and the Indian ,
had, each in his own time, realized its advantages of
residence in clusters of homes; and very early the adven-
turous and speculative white man, as we have seen,
turned with longing, eager eyes to the fertile tract oppo-
site the mouth of the Licking, as the most hopeful spot
spot in all the Miami country whereon to plant a colony.
Mr. James Parton, in his article on Cincinnati in the
Atlantic Monthly for June, i867,8suggests that the loca-
tion of the place was determined^ by considerations of
safety, as this point was the best in this region for the
posting of a garrison. He also calls attention to the
facts that this is the only site on the Ohio river where
one hundred thousand people could live together with-
out being compelled to climb very high and steep hills,
and that it is also about midway between the source and
the mouth of the river^-that is, near the centre of the
great valley of the OhioA
Be these things as t\wy may — whether such thoughts
entered the minds of the founders of Losantiville or not
— it is certain that almost as soon as the proposal for the
Miami Purchase had been mooted, long before Judge
Symmes or the ostensible proprietors of the village were
able to give valid title deeds, the conditional purchase of
the tract " upon which the town was laid out had been
made, and the site had been surveyed and settled. The
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
27
men whose names, in the first instance, must forever be
identified with the initial steps of this enterprise, which
has eventuated in such wonderful results as are to be
seen in the present city on the shore, were Matthias
Denman, Colonel Robert Patterson, John Filson and
Israel Ludlow.
DENMAN.
Of him, the original hero of the Losantiville venture,
least of all is known. He was, like Symmes, Dayton
and others of the company making the famous purchase
between the Miamis, a Jerseyman, residing at Spring-
field, Essex county, in that State, to which he returned,
and where he remained so late as 1830, at least, after his
colony had been firmly planted upon the tract he bought
from Symmes. He was in that year visited in his home
at Springfield by the father of Mr. Francis W. Miller,
author of Cincinnati's Beginnings. That he was a man
of some intelligence, enterprise and energy, may be in-
ferred from the incidents of his connection with this en-
terprise in the then wilderness west; but we do not learn
that he attained to any special distinction in his own
State, or even where he was born or when he died.
PATTERSON.
Colonel Robert Patterson, a leading spirit in the pro-
jecting and founding of Losantiville, was a native of
Pennsylvania, born near Cove mountain, March 15,
1753, of Irish stock, at least on his father's side. At
twenty-one years of age he served six months on the
frontiers of that State defending it against Indian incur-
sions. The same year (1774) he and six other young
adventurers, with John McLelland and family, made their
way to the Royal spring, near Georgetown, Kentucky,
where they lived until April, 1776, when they removed
to the subsequent site of Lexington. Patterson, how-
ever, a few months afterwards assisted in the defence of
McLelland's station, at Royal spring, when attacked by
Indians; and was severely wounded by the savages in a
night attack upon his party, while on their way to Pitts-
burgh shortly after, to procure necessaries, and was under
a surgeon's care for a year. In April, 1778, at Pittsburgh,
he joined the expedition of Colonel George Rogers Clark
against the Illinois country, returning to Kentucky in
September, and settling at Harrodsburgh. Early the
next year, being then an ensign in the Kentucky militia,
he proceeded under orders, with twenty-five men, to his
former residence north of the Kentucky river, built and
garrisoned a fort, and in April laid off the town of Lex-
ington. In May he participated in the movement of
Colonel Bowman against the Shawnee towns on the Little
Miami, and then, probably, for the first time, passed over
the wilderness tract that marked the future seat of the
Queen City. In August, 1780, he was again here, with
the expedition under Colonel Clark against the Indian
towns on the Little Miami and Mad rivers; and once
more, in the latter part of September, 1782, when Clark
marched on his campaign of destruction between the
Miamis, to avenge the defeat of the whites at the Lower
Blue Licks in August — in which Patterson, now colonel
and second in command to Boone, had a very narrow
escape from capture. He must thus have come to know
well the advantages of the site opposite the mouth of the
Licking, years before the arrangement with Denman arid
Filson was made. In T786, Colonel Patterson seems to
have made his last visit here, in another expedition against
the Shawnees, under General Logan (in which he was
badly wounded), before he came with the party in Sep-
tember, 1788, to "blaze" a road from Lexington to the
mouth of the Licking, in preparation for the settlement
of Losantiville. As is well known, he never resided per-
manently with his colony here; but returned to Lexing-
ton after a month's stay. In 1804 he removed from that
place to a farm near Dayton, in this State, where he sur-
vived until August 5, 1827, dying there and then at the
advanced age of seventy-four years. Says the author of
Ranck's History of Lexington:
In person Colonel Patterson was tall and handsome. He was gifted
with a fine mind, but, like Boone, Kenton, and many others of his
simple hunter and pioneer companions, was indulgent and negligent in
business matters, and, like them, lost most of his extensive landed prop-
erty by shrewder rascals.
FILSON.
John Filson was a Kentucky schoolmaster and sur-
veyor (although he says in the preface to his book, "I
am not an inhabitant of Kentucky"), of some literary
ability, as is evinced by the articles appended to A Topo-
graphical Description of the Western Territory of North
America, by George Imlay, a captain in the continental
army during the Revolution, and afterwards several years
in Kentucky as a self-styled "commissioner for laying out
lands in the back settlements." His work was published
in London in three editions, 1792-7; and the appendix
contains the following entitled articles, "by John Filson,"
one of our Losantiville projectors:
1. The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucky, and
an Essay towards the Topography and Natural History of that Impor-
tant Country.
2. The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone, one of the First Set-
tlers, comprehending every Important Occurrence in the Political His-
tory of that Province.
3. The Minutes of the Piankashaw Council, held at Port St. Vin-
cents, April 15, 1784.
4. An Account of the Indian Nations inhabiting within the limits of
the Thirteen United States, their Manners and Customs, and Reflec-
tions on their Origin.
Filson had already published, in 1784, at Wilmington,
Delaware, in an octavo volume of one hundred and
eighteen pages, the papers named in the first two titles;
and they, with three others, were republished in New
York in 1793, as a supplement to an American edition of
Imlay's book, and all attributed to Filson. They include
a report of the Secretary of State (Jefferson) to the Pres-
ident of the United States (Washington), on the quantity
and situation of unsold public lands; also Thoughts on
Emigration, to which are added Miscellaneous Observa-
tions relating to the United States, and a short account
of the State of Kentucky — the whole making up a unique
and in some respects valuable book. Filson was thus the
first to publish a History of Kentucky.
His Adventures of Boone appears to have been written
at the dictation of Boone himself, Filson supplying merely
the phraseology, with perhaps an occasional reflection.
The following document, signed by Boone and others,
28
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
is printed as an endorsement and advertisement in Fil-
son's work on Kentucky:
Advertisement.— We, the subscribers, inhabitants of Kentucky,
and well acquainted with the country from its first settlement, at the
request of the author of this book have carefully revised it, and recom-
mend it to the public as an exceeding good performance, containing as
accurate a description of our country as we think can possibly be given,
much preferable to any in our knowledge extant; and think it will be
of great utility to the public. Witness our hands this twelfth of May,
Anno Domini 1784.
Daniel Boone,
Levi Todd,
James Harrod.
Part of Filson's preface is as follows :
When I visited Kentucky, I found it so far to exceed my expecta-
tions, though great, that I concluded it was a pity that the world has not
adequate information of it. I conceived that a proper description of it
was an object highly interesting to the United States; and, therefore,
incredible as it may appear to some, I must declare that this perform-
ance is not published from lucrative motives, but solely to inform the
world of the happy climate and plentiful soil of this favored region.
And I imagine the reader will believe me the more easily when I inform
him that I am not an inhabitant of Kentucky, but having been there
some time, by my acquaintance in it am sufficiently able to publish the
truth, and from principle have cautiously endeavored to avoid every
species of falsehood. The consciousness of this encourages me to hope
for the public candour, where errors may possibly be found.
Filson receives the following notice in Collins' History
of Kentucky:
The second teacher [in Fayette county] was John Filson, in or before
1784; adventurer, surveyor, fanciful writer of the autobiography of
Daniel Boone, and author of the first printed book about Kentucky —
first published in 1784 in Wilmington, Delaware; in 1785 translated
into French and published in Paris, France; in 1792, 1793, and 1797,
thrice republished in London, with additions by Gilbert Imlay, a sur-
veyor of Jefferson county, Kentucky, to satisfy the cravings of restless
minds in England for information about the newest part of the Old
World. [Mr. Collins had apparently not heard of the New York edition.]
He was one of the original proprietors, drafted the first plan, and
coined the pedagogical name of the projected town of Losantiville, etc.
In a subsequent part of this history, Judge Collins
says:
His fanciful name for the intended town was adopted — Losantiville,
which he designed to mean "the village opposite the mouth," Le-os-
ante-ville, but which more really signifies, ' ' the mouth opposite the
village," — who, or what induced the change from such a pedagogical
and nonsensical a name to the euphonious one of Cincinnati is un-
known [ ! ] ; but in the name of the millions of people who live in or
within reach of it, or visit it or do business with it, we now thank the
man and the opportunity. The invention of such a- name was posi-
tively cruel in Mr. Filson; we hope it had no connection with his early
death. Perhaps that is reason enough why no street in Cincinnati is
named after him.
Judge Collins seems also not to have heard that Plum
street, in this city, is designated as "Filson street" upon
Joel Williams' plat of the original town site, to be seen
in the books of the recorder's office. Certainly, to the
honor of the real founders and pioneers of Losantiville,
the people of Cincinnati have not been neglectful in the
matter of street names. There is a Ludlow street, a
Ludlow avenue, and a Ludlow alley; Patterson has two
streets, and Denman two; McMillan has an avenue; Bur-
net both street and avenue; while St. Clair, Gano, and
many other early names, have not been forgotten in the
street nomenclature. It is true, however, that the mem-
ory of Filson has not yet thus been permanently honored.
According to Collins, when Denman visited Lexing-
ton in the summer of 1788, he saw "the double power"
of Filson as a surveyor and writer, and enlisted him in
the venture with himself and Patterson, on the north side
of the Ohio.
Mr. George W. Ranck's history of Lexington notes of
Filson that he "was an early adventurer with Daniel
Boone, and after the discoverer of Kentucky returned to
Lexington in October [1784], from the Chillicothe towns,
Filson wrote, at his dictation, the only narrative of his
life extant from the pioneer's own lips. This narrative
was endorsed at the time by James Harrod, Levi Todd,
and Boone himself. Filson taught in Lexington for sev-
eral years, and did no little to secure the early organiza-
tion of Transylvania seminary."
Filson, it will be remembered, was killed by the In-
dians in the Miami country, before the location was made
at Losantiville. The circumstances of his death are nar-
rated in chapter V, Part I, of this work.
Professor W. H. Venable, one of the latest and best of
Cincinnati's songsters, thus, in his June on the Miami
and other Poems, sings of our hero :
John Filson was a pedagogue —
A pioneer was he;
I know not what his nation was
Nor what his pedigree.
Tradition's scanty records tell
But little of the man,
Save that he to the frontier came
In immigration's van.
Perhaps with phantoms of reform
His busy fancy teemed,
Perhaps of new Utopias
Hesperian he dreamed.
John Filson and companions bold
A frontier village planned
In forest wild, on sloping hills,
By fair Ohio's strand.
John Filson from three languages
With pedant skill did frame
The novel word Losantiville,
To be the new town's name.
Said Filson: "Comrades, hear my words;
Ere three-score years have flown
Our town will be a city vast."
Loud laughed Bob Patterson.
Still John exclaimed, with prophet-tongue,
" A city fair and proud,
The Queen of Cities in the West."
Mat Denman laughed aloud.
Deep in the wild and solemn woods,
Unknown to white man's track,
John Filson went one autumn day,
But nevermore came back.
He struggled through the solitude
The inland to explore,
. And with romantic pleasure traced
Miami's winding shore.
Across his path the startled deer
Bounds to its shelter green;
He enters every lonely vale
And cavernous ravine.
Too soon the murky twilight comes,
The night-wind 'gins to moan ;
Bewildered wanders Filson, lost,
Exhausted and alone.
By lurking foes his steps are dogged,
A yell his ear appalls 1
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
29
A ghastly corpse upon the ground,
A murdered man he falls.
The Indian, with instinctive hate,
In him a herald saw
Of coming hosts of pioneers,
The friends of light and law ;
In him beheld the champion
Of industries and arts.
The founder of encroaching roads
And great commercial marts;
The spoiler of the hunting-ground,
The plower of the sod,
The builder of the Christian school
And of the house of God.
And so the vengeful tomahawk
John Filson's blood did spill, —
The spirit of the pedagogue
No tomahawk could kill.
John Filson had no sepulchre,
Except the wildwood dim ;
The mournful voices of the air
Made requiem for him.
The druid trees their waving arms
Uplifted o'er his head;
The moon a pallid veil of light
Upon his visage spread.
The rain and sun of many years
Have worn his bones away,
And what he vaguely prophesied
We realize to-day.
Losantiville the prophet's word,
The poet's hope fulfils—
She sits a stately Queen to-day
Amid her royal hills!
Then come, ye pedagogues, and join
To sing a grateful lay
For him, the martyr pioneer,
Who led for you the way.
And may my simple ballad be
A monument to save
His name from blank oblivion
Who never had a grave.
LUDLOW.
Colonel Israel Ludlow, the successor of John Filson
as the holder of a third interest in the site of Cincinnati,
was born upon the Little Head farm, near Morristown,
New Jersey, in 1765. In his early twenties he came to
the valley of the Ohio", to exercise his talents as a practi-
cal surveyor, and was here appointed by the geographer
of the United States, to survey the Miami Purchase and
that of the Ohio company, which he mainly accom-
plished by the spring of 1792, in the face of many diffi-
. culties and dangers, being generally without any escort
of troops, in a country swarming with Indians. Taking
the interest of Filson in the Losantiville venture after
the death of the latter, he became the surveyor of the
town site and the principal agent in disposing of the
lots. After the treaty of Greenville he was employed by
the Government to run the boundary lines for the Indian
country established by treaty, and successfully completed
the work, though amid many perils, and sometimes in
imminent danger of starvation. He was the only one
of the original proprietors who fixed his home at or near
Cincinnati, establishing in 1790 Ludlow Station as a cit-
adel of defence against the savages upon a spot within
the present limits of Cumminsville, the block-house
standing at the intersection of Knowlton street with the
Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. It is claimed
by his biographers (see Biographical Encyclopedia of
Ohio, etc.,) that he gave the name to Cincinnati, in
honor of the society of which his father, Commodore
Ludlow, was a member. December 12, 1794, he laid
out the town of Hamilton as a proprietor; and in No-
vember of the next year, in union with Governor St.
Clair, Hon. Jonathan Dayton, and William McMillan,
he planted the town of Dayton. November n, 1796,
he was married to Charlotte Chambers, of Chambers-
burgh, Pennsylvania, a quite extraordinary woman, who is
made the subject of a beautiful biography by one of her
grandsons. He died at home in January, 1804, after but
four days' illness, and was buried in the graveyard adjoin-
ing the First Presbyterian church, Cincinnati, in . the
front wall of which was afterward fixed a tablet in honor
to his memory. He was buried with Masonic honors,
and an oration was pronounced upon the occasion by
Judge Symmes.
THE PRELIMINARIES.
Denman, as a Jerseyman and perhaps a member of
the East Jersey company, was early cognizant of the proj-
ect of Symmes and his associates to secure the Miami
Purchase; and in January, 1788, he located, among
other tracts, the entire section eighteen and the frac-'
tional section seventeen, lying between the former sec-
tion and the river, upon which Losantiville was founded in
the closing days of the same year. The present boun-
daries of the tract are Liberty street on the north, the
Ohio river on the south, an east line from the Mount
Auburn water works to the river a few feet below Broad-
way, and a west line from a point a very little east of the
intersection of Central avenue and Liberty street to the
river just below the gas works.
The agreed price was the same as the company was to
pay the Government — five shillings per acre, or sixty-six
and two-thirds cents; which for the seven hundred and
forty acres of the tract paid for would have amounted to
four hundred and ninety-three dollars and thirty-three
cents. (This does not include sixty acres which were in
dispute — the entire tract, as finally surveyed, containing
eight hundred acres — and which Symmes claimed were
not paid for.) But the purchase money, it is said, was
paid in Continental certificates, then worth only five shil-
lings on the pound, but turned into the treasury of the
company at par; so that the actual cost of the entry to
Denman, under this arrangement, was a little less than
one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Some conjectures
have been made that the entire eight hundred acres, now
comprising by far the most valuable property in the city,
did not cost Denman more than fifty dollars. Jonathan
Dayton, one of the company, seems to have been fearful
of the negotiation with Denman; for, after Symmes had
gone out to the Purchase, he urged him by letter not to
allow the "Losantiville section" to be covered by any
warrant, except one bought from Symmes or from Day-
ton as his agent, for six shillings threepence, or seven
30
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
shillings sixpence, to aid in making the second payment
on the purchase. As a matter of fact, the section eigh-
teen was not covered by one of Symmes' warrants until
May, 1790, and the fractional section not until April of
the next year; and the old belief was that Denman se-
cured both at a very low rate — for a mere song, as we
should say now.
denman's movements.
In the summer of 1788 Mr. Denman found his way
westward, and made a personal visit to his purchase op-
posite the mouth of the Licking, being thereby confirmed
in his previous intentions of founding a station and ferry
there, and leading a colony to the spot. On his way
back he stopped at Limestone, and is said there to have
fallen in with Colonel Patterson, and soon afterwards, at
Lexington, with the schoolmaster Filson. Broaching his
project to them, he found them eager listeners, and pres-
ently agreed to take them into joint partnership with him.
In this arrangement Denman appears to have undertaken
the chief conduct of the business, while Filson was to do
the surveying and staking off of the tract and superintend
the sales of lots, and Patterson was to be the main agent
in obtaining purchasers and settlers. Denman was un-
derstood to be responsible for all matters relating directly
to the purchase from the East Jersey company; Filson
was already pretty well acquainted with the Miami coun-
try; and Patterson was the most influential man in stir-
ring up people to the point of removal to the new land
of promise. It was thus a very judicious and hopeful ar-
rangement.
Soon afterwards, probably at Lexington, the following
contract was executed between the parties :
A covenant and agreement, made and concluded this twenty-fifth day
of August, 1788, between Matthias Denman, of Essex county, State of
New Jersey, of the one part, and Robert Patterson and John Filson, of
Lexington, Fayette county, Kentucky, of the other part, witnesseth :
That the aforesaid Matthias Denman, having made entry of a tract of
land on the northwest side of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the
Licking river, in that district in which Judge Symmes has purchased
from Congress, and being seized thereof by right of entry, to contain
six hundred and forty acres, and the fractional parts that may pertain,
does grant, bargain, and sell the full two-thirds thereof by an equal,
undivided right, in partnership, unto the said Robert Patterson and
John Filson, their heirs and assigns ; and upon producing indisputable
testimony of his, the said Denman's, right and title to the said prem-
ises, they, the said Patterson and Filson, shall pay the sum of twenty
pounds Virginia money, to the said Denman, or his heirs or assigns, as
a full remittance for moneys by him advanced in payment of said
lands, every other institution, determination, and regulation respecting
the laying-off of a town, and establishing a ferry at and upon the prem-
ises, to the result of the united advice and consent of the parties in cov-
enant, as aforesaid ; and by these presents the parties bind themselves,
for the true performance of these covenants, to each other, in the penal
sum of one thousand pounds, specie, hereunto affixing their hands and
seals, the day and year above mentioned.
Matthias Denman,
Signed, sealed, and delivered R. Patterson,
in the presence of— John Filson.
Henry Owen, ,
Abr. McConnell.
The Virginia pound of those days was equivalent to
three dollars and thirty-three cents in Federal specie, so
that, since Denman sold two-thirds of his tract for sixty-
six dollars and sixty-seven cents, the cash value he ap-
parently put upon the whole was but one hundred dollars.
"LOSANTIVILLE.
The general plan of the town was agreed upon, and
Filson was to proceed as quickly as possible to get a. plat
made, and all things in readiness for early settlement and
sale. It was also agreed to call the new place Losanti-
ville. This extraordinary designation was undoubtedly
the product of the Kentucky schoolmaster's pedantic
genius. An analysis of the word soon discovers its
meaning. "L" is sometimes supposed to be simply the
contraction of the French le, making the entire name to
read "the town opposite the mouth." It is more gener-
ally believed, however, to have been intended by Filson
as an abbreviation for Licking, leaving the article before.
ville in construction to be understood. Os is the Greek
word for mouth, anti Latin for opposite, and ville French
for town or city. The whole term would thus signify
the town opposite the mouth of the Licking. It fur-
nishes a remarkable instance, not only of an eccentric,
polyglot neologism, but of the power of synthetic lan-
guages to express in one word what an analytic language
like ours must express in a much longer circumlocution
and with somewhat numerous words. It has been doubted
whether the village was ever really so called, except in
the original plans of Filson, Denman, and Patterson; but
there can be no doubt in the mind of one who looks well
into the question, that the plan and village had that title
continuously from the day they were agreed to, in August,
1788, to the day, January 2 or 4, 1790, when Governor
St. Clair changed it to Cincinnati, "so that," as Judge
Symmes wrote, " Losantiville will become extinct."
There was never a post office or municipality here of that
name; but letters were written from here under it; the
town seems to have been familiarly so designated in
correspondence and conversation ; it has come down in
almost unquestioned tradition associated with that title;
and, to crown the evidence, it so appears upon some of
the earliest maps of Ohio, and one of the plats recorded
fifteen years after the settlement, while bearing the name
Cincinnati, is also remarked in the explanations as
"formerly called Losanterville." The orthographic
blunder nqted suggests the spelling adopted by Mr.
Julius Dexter in his prefatory historic note to King's
Pocket-book of Cincinnati, and which may occasion-
ally be seen in print elsewhere — " Losanteville, " for which
there are some good arguments to adduce. The name
appears originally to have been written with considerable
carelessness, since among the papers of Patterson, after
his death, was found a copy of the "conditions" present-
ly to be recited, though not in his handwriting, in the
heading of which the name appears as " Losantiburg. "
It was probably the heedless work of some clerk of Pat-
terson's. The right name appears in the nomenclature of
Cincinnati only in "Losantiville Hall," a place of as-
sembly on Front street, many years ago, north of Deer
Creek bridge, mentioned in the Cincinnati Almanac for
1 85 o. Nothing else like it appears in all the geographical
nomenclature of the world, except in a single instance—
the name of the postoffice at Losantville, Randolph
county, Indiana, probably named from a pioneer settler
or proprietor.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OIHO.
3i
THE ROAD TO THE LICKING.
After the execution of the agreement, Denman re-
turned to Limestone to meet Judge Symmes, leaving an
understanding with his partners that they were soon to
"blaze'' a road through the wilderness in the direction of
their purchase and establish a ferry across the Ohio there,
if practicable. The former part of this arrangement ap-
pears conspicuously in the following advertisement, in-
serted by Patterson and Filson in the Kentucky Gazette,
published at Lexington, for the sixth of September, 1788
Notice. — The subscribers, being proprietors of a tract of land op-
posite the mouth of the Licking river, on the northwest side of the
Ohio, have determined to lay off a town on that excellent situation.
The local and natural advantages speak its future prosperity, being
equal, if not superior, to any on the bank of the Ohio, between the
Miamis. The in-lots to be, each, half an acre, the out-lots four acres,
thirty of each to be given to settlers upon payment of one dollar and
fifty cents for the survey and deed of each lot. The fifteenth of Sep-
tember is appointed for a large company to meet in Lexington and
mark a road from there to the mouth of the Licking, provided Judge
Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off lots
will be given to such as may become residents before the first day of
April next. Matthias Denman.
Robert Patterson.
John Filson.
A company was gathered without much difficulty in
those restless and adventurous days. It was, probably,
not large, but sufficient for the purpose, and did not in-
clude Judge Symmes, who was proceeding to "Miami"
by way of the river. Without waiting for him, the party
found its way to the Ohio — doubtless aided much of the
way by old Indian trails and military traces — and must
have arrived there in a few days, since it there met Den-
man and Judge Symmes, who records that he "landed
at Miami" on the twenty-second of September. Fil-
son is rather doubtfully said to have spent a day or
two here, marking out streets through the dense forest.
He, with the rest of the Kentuckians, accompanied
Symmes on the exploring expedition up the Miami
country, which they penetrated "as high as the upper
side of the fifth range of townships,'' as the judge after-
wards wrote. The adventures of this party, and the un-
happy death of Filson, have been related in our chapter
on the Miami Purchase. While Symmes and Patter-
son were absent on this excursion," Denman, Ludlow —
who happened to be with the party, though not yet.a
proprietor — and others, followed the meanderings of the
Ohio between the Miamis, and pushed their way about
ten miles up one of the Miami rivers.
THE VOYAGE FROM LIMESTONE.
After the death of Filson and the return of the explor-
ing party to the Ohio, Denman and Patterson went with
Symmes back to Limestone, where they decided upon
just the individual needed to take the place of Filson in
the partnership, in the person of the young surveyor,
Israel Ludlow; and an arrangement was made in Octo-
ber by which he should take Filson's interest in the Lo-
santiville enterprise. The latter's plan of the town had
perished with him. His brother, who was with the party
of Kentuckians when John • Filson was killed, consider-
ing that he had yet paid nothing and had established lit-
tle valid claim upon the property, informed the surviving
partners that the legal representatives of the deceased
would demand nothing under the contract of August 2 2d.
Ludlow prepared a new plan of the village, differing, it is
supposed, in some important respects from Filson's, par-
ticularly as to the public square to be donated for church
and school purposes, the common or public landing, and
the names of streets. It is quite possible that some of
these differences appear in the discrepancies observable
between the recorded plats of Ludlow and of Joel Wil-
liams, which will be presently noted. The drafting of
plans, the gathering of a colony, and other preparations
for the settlement, employed the time of the proprietors
at Limestone and elsewhere for many weeks, and they
were further hindered for a time by the same obstacles
which delayed Symmes, as recited in our chapter on the
Purchase. At length, on the day before Christmas, in
the year of grace 1788, the courageous founders of Lo-
santiville and Cincinnati packed themselves in the rude
flat or keel-boats and barges of the time, took leave of
the party still at Limestone that was shortly to settle
North Bend (the Columbia adventurers had been gone
more than a month), and swept out on the broad bosom
of the Ohio, now swelled beyond its usual limits, and
covered thickly with floating ice.
They were all men, twenty-six in number. The fol-
lowing, by the best authorities, is the
ROLL OF HONOR.
Noah Badgeley, Samuel Blackburn, Thaddeus Bruen,
Robert Caldwell, Matthew Campbell, James Carpenter,
William Connell, Matthew Fowler, Thomas Gizzel (or
Gissel), Francis Hardesty, Captain Henry, Luther Kitch-
ell, Henry Lindsey, Israel Ludlow, Elijah Martin, Wil-
liam McMillan, Samuel Mooney, Robert Patterson, John
Porter, Evan Shelby, Joseph Thornton, Scott Traverse,
Isaac Tuttle, John Vance, Sylvester White, Joel Williams.
The list given in the Cincinnati Directory of 1819,
which is usually repeated as the roll of founders, does not
include the names of Ludlow and Patterson, which is ob-
viously incorrect; nor of Henry, Matthew Campbell, or
Elijah Martin. It includes the name of Ephraim Kibby,
who was subsequently of the Columbia colony, and was
very likely of this party, as also Daniel Shoemaker, who
is not on the list of 1819, but appears, like Kibby among
the original proprietors of donation lots. Martin and
Campbell were also such proprietors; but not Henry.
The names of all the others appear in the list of those
who drew donation lots, except those of the proprietors
of the town and of Bruen, Caldwell, Connell, Fowler,
Hardesty, Shelby, and Tuttle. The fact is, not all who
came with the party staid as colonists, while others arrived
subsequently to share in the distribution of the donation
lots. Tuttle, Henry, and probably others, joined Symmes'
voyagers to North Bend in February; Kibby and Shoe-
maker, though drawing lots at Losantiville, were with
Stites' party at Columbia, and at least Kibby subsequently
removed there; one other at least, Mr. Hardesty, went
elsewhere, probably on the Kentucky shore, since there
were Hardestys in Newport; and others drifted away
without making permanent settlement here.
32
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Judge Symmes' account of the voyage of the Losanti-
ville argonauts from Limestone was communicated to his
fellows of the East Jersey company, in a letter from North
Bend, about five months afterwards. It is as follows:
On the twenty-fourth of December last, Colonel Patterson of Lexing-
ton, who is concerned with Mr. Denman in the section at the mouth of
the Licking river, sailed from Limestone in company with Mr. Tuttle,
Captain Henry, Mr. Ludlow, and about twelve others, in order to form
a station and lay out a town opposite Licking. They suffered much
from the inclemency of the weather and floating ice, which filled the
Ohio from shore to shore. Perseverance, however, triumphing over
difficulty, they landed safe on a most delightful high bank of the Ohio,
where they founded the town of Losantiville, which populates consid-
erably, but would be much more improved by this time, if Colonel Pat-
terson or Mr. Denman had resided in the town. Colonel Patterson
tarried about one month at Losantiville, and returned to Lexington.
The time of the departure from Limestone is indispu-
table; the date of arrival at "Miami" has been much
disputed. For many years the twenty-sixth of Decem-
ber was celebrated as the anniversary of the landing;
and to this day the city directory notes that as the day
observed by the Cincinnati Pioneer association, though
we are informed that their practice in this particular has
changed. It does not seem at all probable that, in the
face of difficulties experienced, the voyage from Lime-
stone to Yeatman's cove, sixty-five or more miles, was
accomplished in two days. An English traveller, noting
his arrival here in 1806, records that "travelling is so
very good between Limestone and the town, a distance
of sixty-eight miles, that I descended in two short days'
run, without meeting with any obstacles.'' Bad weather
and other hindrances, as floating ice, which Symmes says
"filled the Ohio from shore to shore," would undoubtedly
delay the trip beyond two days, and very probably until
the day now generally accepted as the true date — De-
cember 28, 1788. William McMillan, a man of native
talents and classical education, of strong memory and
clear, judicial brain, testified years afterwards, in a chan-
cery case involving the right of property, as between the
city and Joel Williams, in the Public Landing, that he
landed here with the party on that day. Denman also,
in another case, testified that they came "late in Decem-
ber," though he could not remember the precise day;
while Patterson and Ludlow thought the landing was
early in January, which is quite certainly too late. Mr.
McMillan's testimony, we think, now commands general
acceptance. The tradition is probably correct that the
party, occupied in completing the preparations, did not
get away from Limestone until somewhat late in the day,
and made but nine miles before tying up for the night •
that the third day they sighted Columbia, but were una-
ble to reach it or stop on account of the ice; that the
same cause prevented their landing here upon arrival
opposite the spot on the evening of the same day, but
that, after remaining in or near the mouth of the Licking
through the night of the twenty-seventh, they effected a
crossing with their boats the next morning, and trium-
phantly entered the little inlet at the foot of Sycamore
street, afterwards known as Yeatman's cove. Fastening
their frail barks to the roots and shrubs along the bank,
they step ashore, collect driftwood and other dry frag-
ments, strike the steel and flint, and provide themselves
with their first necessity to comfort and cookery — ample
fires. Very likely, the fatigues of the voyage over, they
soon realize, even long before night, the graphic picture
drawn by Dr. Daniel Drake more than sixty-three years
afterwards: "Setting their watchmen around, they lay
down with their feet to the blazing fires, and fell asleep
under the music of the north wind whistling among the
frozen limbs of the great sycamores and water maples
which overhung them."
It was no time for prolonged rest or sleep, however.
The depth of winter is not the season for open-air bivou-
acs, when shelters are at hand. The readiest expedient
for the supply of material for dwellings — one already sug-
gested' by the practice of the boatmen of the age in
breaking up their vessels and selling their constituent
parts when the destination was reached— naturally occur-
red to the newly arrived, and their first cabin was con-
structed of boat-planks and other breakage from the craft
in which they came. This is the statement of Judge
Burnet, in the historical preface he wrote in Mr. George
Henry Shaffer's Business Directory of 1840, and which
Mr. Shaffer, who is still living, assures us is trustworthy
in every particular. If so, the picture of the first cabin
(represented as a log one, standing below the cove), used
in a mayor's message some years ago as an advertisement
'■ for a forthcoming History of Cincinnati, must be revised
1 and reconstructed in the light of this fact. The first
was built on the present Front street, a little'east of Main,
and of course northwest of the cove or place of landing;
and others soon put up, two or three in number, were in
the immediate vicinity, where the dense, wild forest bor-
dered upon the surging waters.
THE ORIGINAL TOWN PLAT.
While his companions occupied themselves in build-
ing, hunting, scouting, and other employments, Ludlow,
doubtless assisted by Badgeley, who was one of Symmes'
surveyors, and other trusty aids, engaged in the survey of
the town, which was substantially completed by the
seventh of January, 1789, when the drawing took place
for the donation lots. The survey extended from the
river to Northern row, now Seventh street, and from
Eastern (now Broadway) to Western row (Central ave-
nue), with out-lots of tour acres each, or a present square,
beyond Northern row to the north limits of the Losanti-
ville purchase, at Liberty street. The out-lots numbered
eighty-one. The street corners were marked upon the trees.
There was and is, as everybody remarks, an interesting
association between the two. The Jerseymen and Penn-
sylvanians of the party had clearly in mind, in the regu-
larity with which the town was laid off and the names
they gave its avenues, their favorite Quaker City—
Where the streets still re-echo the names of the trees of the forest,
As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose haunts they invaded.
The survey was not recorded until April 29, 1802, when
the law of the Territory required it, under heavy penalties.
The entry may be found in Book E — 2, pages 62-63.
The following documents, on page 60, introduce and ex-
plain it:
References to the plan of the Town of Cincinnati, in page No 62
exhibited by Colonel Israel Ludlow (as one of the proprietors), on the
/,
< <: , /,
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
33
fore-noon of the twenty-ninth day of April, 1802, and recorded agree-
ably thereto.
N. B. — The following certificate is attached to the original:
This may certify that I consider myself as having been one of the
original proprietors of the Town of Cincinnati, and hereby authorize
Israel Ludlow to make or copy a plan according to the original plan or
intention of the firm, and cause to be recorded as such, agreeably to
the Laws of the Territory in that case made and provided.
November 20, 1801.
Matthias Denman.
Test:
P. P. Stewart,
D. C. Cooper.
The following notes from another Nota Bene may be
of interest :
The lots in the regular squares of the town contain seventy-two
square perches, are twelve poles in length and six poles wide. The
out-lots, which are entire, contain each four*acres, are in length from
east to west six chains and fifty links.
The six long squares between Front and Water streets contain lots
ten poles long and six poles wide.
All the streets in the town are four poles wide, excepting Seventh
street * and the Eastern and Western row, which are but two poles
wide.
The corners of the streets are north sixteen degrees west, and others
crossing at right angles south seventy-four degrees west. — Streets
through the out-lots four poles wide.
Then, on pages 62-3 of the record, follows the Ludlow
plat. The streets thereon are named as now, except East-
ern row (Broadway) and Western row (Central avenue).
The name of Plum street is spelt " Plumb." None of the
alleys or narrower streets now existing within the tract
platted were in this survey. The space now occupied by
the Public Landing is left blank, except for the well known
cove of that day, which is figured as extending to the
south line of Front street, a little east of the foot of Syca-
more, and a little wider at its junction with the river than
it was long. Colonel Patterson, in a deposition made in
1803, in the suit between Williams and the town of Cin-
cinnati, said that this ground "in front of Front street
was declared at that time a public common for the use of
the citizens of the said town, excepting and reserving
only, for the benefit of the proprietors, the privilege of
establishing a ferry on the bank of the Ohio on said com-
mon."
All lots in the south half of the squares between Sec-
ond and Third streets, and all below them, are laid out
lengthwise north and south; all others in an east and west
direction. Lots one hundred and fourteen to seventeen,
and one hundred and thirty-nine to forty-two, are indi-
cated in Ludlow's appended notes, and by a boundary of
red ink in the plat, as "given to public uses." They con-
stitute the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth, Walnut
and Main streets, which' was afterwards divided between
the First Presbyterian church, the Cincinnati college, and
the county of Hamilton.
East of Eastern row, between extensions of Third and
Fifth streets, were sixteen in-lots, and immediately north
of these was the first range of out-lots, numbered from one
to eight. The ranges of out-lots on the northwest, two
in number, began also north of Fifth street. Some in-
truding hand has marked "canal" upon the north line of
the third range of out-lots, above Seventh street, then the
♦This was undoubtedly originally designated as Northern row,
narrow, two-rod street forming the north boundary of the
town.
Another and rival plat, surveyed by whom we know
not, was exhibited to the recorder by Joel Williams, on
the same day, "at six o'clock p. m.," of "the town of Cin-
cinnati (formerly called Losanterville)," by Samuel Free-
man and Joel Williams, assignees of Matthias Denman
and Robert Patterson. It was also recorded by the ac-
commodating register of that official term, immediately
after the Ludlow and Denman plat. The general changes
in the names of streets, as indicated by letters upon this
map, referring to notes prefixed, possess special interest,
and exhibit the most pointed difference between the two.
The present Water to Seventh streets are thus designated,
in order : Water, Front, Columbia [Second], Hill [Third],
High [Fourth], Byrd [Fifth], Gano [Sixth], and Northern
row. At least one of these names, Columbia, prevailed
in the local usage for many years. The intersecting
streets, from Eastern row (which retained its name, west-
ward, were Sycamore, Main, Cider [Walnut], Jefferson
[Vine], Beech [Race], Elm, Filson [Plum], Western row.
The space devoted by the original proprietors to a pub-
lic landing is shown as filled with in-lots, numbered four
hundred and sixty-one to four hundred and sixty-eight.
The numbers of other lots and the general features of the
survey are the same as in the other plat. The same
square, bounded by Main, Cider, High, and Byrd streets,
is marked and noted as "reserved for a court house, a
jail, a church, and school." There is also some differ-
ence observable in the boundary lines of sections.
This was made, as the appended affidavit of Williams
shows, in the absence from the territory of Denman and
Patterson, "the two other original proprietors of said
town" — other than Filson, Colonel Ludlow not being
recognized in the affidavit — and Williams' consequent be-
lief, as he swore, "that they had no intention of recording
in person the plat of said town, agreeable to a late act
of the said territory, entitled 'an act to provide for the
recording of town-plats.'" The affidavit goes on to aver
that " this deponent further saith that he possesses,
as he believes, sufficient information in the premises to
enable him to make a plat of said town of Cincinnati,
agreeable to the original plat, design, and intentions of
the aforesaid original proprietors of said town, in man-
ner and form as the same was originally laid out and de-
clared by the proprietors aforesaid; and this deponent
further saith that the within is a true and accurate map or
plat of the said town of Cincinnati, agreeable to the or-
iginal plat, planj" etc. The divergences from Ludlow's
survey are thus partly accounted for. Williams' claims,
under this plat, made without any reference to Colonel
Ludlow, the original surveyor, who was still living and
readily accessible within five miles of the Cincinnati of
that day, were subsequently made the subject of litigation
between himself and the public authorities, in which his
plat was invalidated and his case lost. The property in-
volved in the determination of this case was that which
Williams' plat covers with town lots, but which has been
continuously occupied, save a small part on the west side
once covered with a building or buildings, as a public
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
landing. This tract Williams had bought in 1800 from
Judge Symmes, who made the usual guarantee of his
right to sell it, and gave Williams some color for his
claim. As to the comparative correctness of the two plats,
it is worth notice that Colonel Patterson, in his deposi-
tion of 1803, declared that he had examined both plats,
and believed "the one recorded by Israel Ludlow to be
agreeable to the original plan."
Some years before this, in 1794 or 1795, Williams had
come into possession by assignment of Denman's remain-
ing interest, and claimed as an original proprietor. The
remainder of Patterson's third, about the • same time,
passed by assignment to Samuel Freeman. The colonel
remained here but a short time, and then returned; while
Denman, who did not even come with the colony in De-
cember, did not remove from New Jersey. Of the four
worthies originally associated with the founding of Cin-
cinnati, only Colonel Ludlow became identified with the
place as a resident; and he lived at his station some miles
out. To all.intents, however, he was a Cincinnatian.
THE DONATION LOTS.
Losantiville was now ready for regular settlement. It
remained for the proprietors to fulfil their generous
pledges of free in-lots and out-lots to the expectant
colonists. The survey having been completed, or suf-
ficiently advanced for the purpose, by the seventh of
January, the proprietors, represented by Colonel Ludlow,
promulgated the following:
CONDITIONS
on which the donation lots in the town Losantiville are held and settled.
The first Thirty town and out lots to so many of the most early ad-
venturers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Denman, Patterson,
& Ludlow, who for their part do agree to make a deed free and clear of
all charges and incumbrances excepting that of surveying and deeding
the same, so soon as a deed is procured from Congress by Judge
Symmes.
The lot-holders for their part do agree to become actual settlers on
the premises; plant & attend two crops successively & not less than One
Acre shall be cultivated for each crop & that within the term of two
years— each person receiving a donation lot or lots shall build an house
equal to Twenty feet square, One Storey & half high, with a brick,
stone, or clay Chimney, which shall stand in front of their respective
in lots and shall be put in tenantable repair within the term of two
years from the date hereof.
The above requisitions shall be minutely complyed with under pen-
alty of forfeiture, unless Indian depredations render it impracticable.
Done this seventh day of January Qne thousand seven hundred &
Eighty Nine. Israel Ludlow.
The lottery for the distribution of the lots was held
the same day, under the personal direction of Patterson
and Ludlow, with the result indicated below. The
original proprietors of some of the most valuable lots in
the city are thus shown. The orthography of the
original record, now in the possession of the Ohio His-
torical and Philosophical society, has been followed, there
being no difficulty in recognizing the names:
Out- In- Out- In-
lots. lots. lots. lots.
Joel Williams 3 79 Ephraim Kibby 4 59
John Porter 2 77 John Vance 24 4
David McClure 6 26 Jesse Fulton 23 6
Samuel Mooney 14 33 Henry Bechtel 16 56
Sylvester White 15 2 Isaac , Freeman 20 51
Joseph Thornton 28 3 Samuel Blackburn 29 1
James Carpenter 1 32 Scott Traverse 9 52
Matthew Cammel 8 28 Elijah Martin 26 7
Noah Badgeley 22 31 Archibald Stewart 12 57
Luthar Kitchel 13 58 James McConnel 5 30
James Cammel 21 34 " Davison 19 27
Jesse Stewart 30 54 James Dument n 5
Benjamin Dument 25 53 Jonas Menser 10 29
Isaac Van Meter .. : 18 8 Thomas Gizzel 17 9
Daniel Shoemaker 27 79 Harry Lindsay 7 76
William McMillan 31 James Campbell 154
By this record thirty-one out-lots and thirty in-lots
were given away. There are thirty-two names of donees,
but Mr. McMilllan drew no in-lot, and in-lot number
seventy-nine seems to have been drawn by both Joel Wil-
liams and Daniel Shoemaker. The latter, however, ob-
tained lot seventy-eight, as appears by the diagram
below, so that the record, as originally made, is probably
erroneous, and thirty-one lots each, of in-lots and out-lots,
were donated, which would just comprise the four dona-
tion blocks of in-lots, save only the one lot presently to be
noted. The in-lots given embraced the entire blocks be-
tween Front and Second, Main and Broadway, Second
and Third, Broadway and Sycamore, and the east half
of the block bounded by Second and Third, Main and
Sycamore, except lot fifty-five, on the northwest corner of
Second and Sycamore, which was then reckoned of little
value, on account of the position of part of it in the
swamp which was for years about the intersection of
Sycamore and Second streets. The lots which faced or
adjoined the Public Landing were accounted the most
valuable. Some of the settlers preferred not to be limited
to these blocks in their selections, and declined to receive
as donees, preferring to have a free range for purchase,
which could then be effected at an exceedingly low rate.
The original price of either class of lots is not certainly
known, but is supposed to have been two dollars for an
in-lot on the "Bottom," and four dollars for one on the
"Hill." All evidence goes to show that prices were
very cheap. Colonel Ludlow, for example, having one
hundred dollars due him on his bill of surveying, chose
to take a tract of one hundred and twenty acres seven
miles from the village, rather than accept the offer made
him instead, of four out-lots and a square through which
now .runs Pearl street, and which is worth millions of
dollars. Several years afterwards, though prices had
much advanced, lots in the principal streets could yet be
had for less than one' hundred dollars. About 1805
town property rose rapidly, from the large influx of popu-
lation, but advanced more slowly till 1811, when another
rapid appreciation set in, continuing until 1815, when
some lots on Main street, between Front and Third, com-
manded as much as two hundred dollars per front foot,
and one hundred dollars from Third to Sixth. Property
on lower Broadway, Front, and Market streets, could
then be had for eighty dollars to one hundred and twenty
dollars per foot; elsewhere in the business quarter, ten
dollars to fifty dollars, according to situation and local
advantages for trade. Out-lots still adjoining the town,
and neighboring tracts of country property, commanded
five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars an acre in
1815.
Settlement in Losantiville still needed stimulating;
and a large number of additional lots were given away by
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
35
the proprietors, mostly in May, 1789, to other newcom-
ers. The following list has been preserved of lots given
away by the proprietors on the same conditions as the
first thirty donation lots:
No. of Lot. No. of Lot.
Robert Caldwell 83, 84 Robert Benham 17, 62
John Cutter 92 Joshua Findlar 37
Seth Cutter 89 Henry Bechtle, jr 57
James Millan 94 Robert Benham 63
Levi Woodward 33, 34 Joseph Kelly 113
Thaddeus Bruen 32 Isaac Bates 60
Nathaniel Rolstein 30 James Campbell 154
William Rolstein 65 Dr. John Hole 227
Jonathan Fitts 61 Jabith Philips 91
William Cammel 85 John Cummings 106
Abraham Garrison 86 Captain Furguson 13
Francis Kennedy 151
Lutner Kitchel 80
David Logan 263
Mr. Wick Malign Baker 138 John Covert 85
Cobus Lindsicourt 114 Enoch McHendry 67
Richard Benham 90 James Dument 108
William McMillan, esq 27 John Terry, sr., 116
Same (out-lot) 53 Joel Williams 126
Henry Reed 88 J oseph McHendry 79
John Ellis 129 James Cunningham 128
Captain [before Lieut.] Ford. .9, n Samuel Kitchel 209 or 205
Levi Woodard 34 Colonel Robert Patterson 127
We have corrected the orthography of this list in many
places, to correspond with known spelling. These lots
seem all to have been in-lots, save one of those noted as
a grant to Mr. McMillan.
The following is a diagram of one of the blocks in the
first donation parcel, with memoranda of actual settlers
who drew the several lots, January 7, 1789:
Lieutenant Mahlon Ford . . .
Elijah Martin 82
Samuel Kennedy 112
Joel Williams.
Jesse Stewart.
79
54
D. Shoemaker.
Benjamin -Dumont.
78
53
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LANDING.
PURCHASERS.
Many other names appear on Ludlow's record as the
original purchasers of lots in Losantiville, mostly dur-
ing 1789. They have been collected by the industry
of Mr. Robert Clarke, in his privately printed pamphlet
on Losantiville, and we subjoin the list, striking there-
from only the names already given as those of proprie-
tors of donation lots:
Dr. Adams, George Adams, John Adams, Henry Atchison, Stephen
Barns, Daniel Bates, William Beazley, William Bedell, Thomas Black
James Blackburn, John Blanchard, Truman Bostwick, Thomas Brown,
Brunton & Dougherty, Moses Burd, James Burns, Garret Cavender,
John Cheek, Thomas Cochran, Ephraim Coleman, James Colwell,
Peyton Cook, Daniel C. Cooper, John Coulson, Joseph Cutter, Mat-
thew Danalds, Edward Darling, Jonathan Davis, Elijah Davis, William
Devin, William Dillan, William Dorrough, Russel Farnum, Elijah
Finley, Benjamin Flinn, Jacob Fowler, Samuel Freeman, Adam Funk,
John Gaston, Uriah Gates, James Goald, William Gowen, Archibald
Gray, George Greves, John Griffin, Joel Hamblin, Hezekiah Hardesty,
Uriah Hardesty, William Harris, James Harway, William Hedger,
Heooleson, Robert Hinds, Daniel Hole, Darius Hole, William
Hole, Zachariah Hole, Edward Holland, Jerum Holt, Israel Hunt,
Nehemiah Hunt, Nicholas Johnson, David Joice, Nicholas Jones, John
Kearsey (or Kearney), William Kelley, Rev. James Kemper, Lieuten-
ant Kingsbury, Bethuel Kitchell, Daniel Kitchell, John Love, James
Lowrey, John Ludlow, James Lyon, Daniel McClure, George McClure,
John McClure, Mary McClure, William McClure, William McCoy,
James McKnight, Henry McLaughlin, John McLaughlin, James Mar-
shall, Isaac Martin, Margaret Martin, Samuel Martin, Luke Mellon,
Jonathan Mercer, James Miller, Moses Miller, Jacob Mills, Alexander
Moore, Robert Moore, Dr. Morrel, Jesse Mott, Captain John Munn,
George Murfey, John Murfey, Mr. Neelson, George Niece, Christopher
Noon, Darius C. Orcutt, Andrew Parks, Culbertson Parks, Presley Peck,
Thomas Persons, Matthew Pierson, Samuel Pierson, Enos Potter, Cap-
tain Pratt, James Pursley, Jacob Reeder, Stephen Reeder, Thomas Rich-
ards, John Riddle, Abraham Ritchison, Reuben Rood, Asa Root, Jona-
than Ross, John Ross, John Ross, jr., Moses Ross, William Ross, Wil-
liam Rusk, Colonel Winthrop Sargent, Levi Sayre, David Scott, James
Scott, Obediah Scott, John Seaman, Jonas Seaman, Niles Shaw, Casper
Sheets, Ziba Stibbins, Captain Strong, Dennis Sullivan, Jacob Tapping,
Henry Taylor, Enos Terry, Robert Terry, John Tharp, Judge George
Turner, Benjamin Valentine, Benjamin Van Cleve, John Van Cleve,
Jacob Van Doran, -John Van Eton, Cornelius Van Nuys, James Wal-
lace, Jacob Warwick, David Welch, Samuel Whiteside, John Wiant,
Winters, Amos Wood.
All deeds had still to be given by Symmes, as the pro-
prietors of the town had yet no valid title from him ; and
he himself, for that matter, had not been able to obtain
his patent from the Government.
annals of losantiville.
January was spent mainly in surveying and in laying
off in-lots. Improvements were begun on the outlots,
and continued as the weather permitted, in order to get
them ready for crops in spring, and some were pretty well
cleared in the course of the year, especially on the "Bot-
tom," between Walnut street and Broadway. A great
many trees were cut down this year, but they mostly re-
mained on the ground, where some of them were to be
seen for years afterwards. Still, the main reliance for
food the next fall and winter was upon the settlers at Co-
lumbia, who had much of the fertile Turkey bottom under
cultivation, without whose aid there would have been pos-
itive suffering at Losantiville, and perhaps abandonment
of the fort by the garrison. The Indians did not come
in and manifest friendship; but did no great amount of
harm the first year. About twenty log cabins and one
frame dwelling were built during the year, principally on
lots adjacent to the Public Landing.* There were but
one or two stone chimneys among them all. They were,
in general, surrounded by standing timber, stumps, and
great butts of timber too difficult to split, and so left to
decay or be burned.
It is not certainly known when the first family came.
As early as the eighth of February Francis Kennedy was
on the ground with his wife Rebecca and children to the
perfect number of seven; but his may or may not have
been the first entire family. It is known that he found
* Major Fowler, however, thought there were forty or fifty cabins by
the close of 1789.
36
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
three women already here — Miss Dement, daughter of
James Dement; Mrs. Constance Zenes, afterwards Mrs.
William McMillan; and Mrs. Pesthal, a German woman,
with some small children. He said he found but three
little cabins when he came, all without floors. On the
tenth of April Mr. McHenry came, with two grandsons
and as many granddaughters; also Mrs. Ross with a
small family. Kennedy's family lived in the boat in
which it came, until the ice in the river began to run,
when he built a cabin right in the middle of Water street,
which was not yet opened. He established the first ferry
to the Kentucky shore at this point, Thomas Kennedy
attending it upon the other side, and had a great deal to
do, especially during the campaigns against the Indians.
He was drowned near the close of the Indian wars, while
ferrying over cattle for the army, and Joel Williams next
obtained the ferry license.
Thomas Kennedy, the ferryman beyond the flood, was
a Scotchman who came first to Losantiville in the spring,
and then removed to the other shore, where Covington
now stands, which from him and his vocation long bore
the name of "Kennedy's Ferry."
In April of this year arrived Thomas Irwin and James
Burns, two young men from Pennsylvania, who had come
to push their fortunes in the Miami country. They
stopped first at Columbia. Mr. McBride, in his Pioneer
Biography, sketch of Mr. Irwin's life, thus narrates their
further movements and observations :
Messrs. Irwin and Burns remained at Columbia during the day, ex-
amining the place. Mr. Irwin said there were quite a number of fami-
lies residing there at the time, scattered over the bottom lands, and,
as he thought, very much exposed. They offered great inducements
to the young adventurers to locate themselves at Columbia; and,
though they informed them of another sm.ill settlement eight miles
further down the river, opposite the mouth of the Licking river, they
gave them no encouragement to go there.
They remained in their boat during the night, and the next morning
left it in the care of the man opposite whose house they had landed,
and taking their guns, started down the river-bank in quest of the set-
tlement below. The bank was narrow, and there was no road or
traces ; the woods were thick, and the way much obstructed by under-
brush and vines; — so that the travelling was very tedious. Opposite the
mouth of the Licking river, they came to a double shanty occupied by
seven men. These men, all but two of them, had been employed with
the surveyors in surveying Symmes' Purchase during the preceding
winter. Their names were David Logan, Caleb Reeves, Robert
[James?] McConnell, Francis Hardesty, Mr. Van Eaton, William Mc-
Millan and John Vance. Joel Williams was also there, and had been
with the surveyors a part of the time, and was with Israel Ludlow
when he surveyed and laid out the town in February [January] previ-
ous [1789], marking the lines of the streets and corners of lots on the
trees. This shanty had been built by these persons for their accom-
modation, immediately after they laid out the town. It was the first
improvement made in the place, and these persons were the first set-
tlers of Cincinnati. Joel Williams assisted them to build the shanty,
and remained with them some time, until, with their assistance, he built
a cabin on his own lot near the foot of Main street. He had the plat
of the town, was an agent for the proprietors, and encouraged Irwin
and Burns to settle themselves at that place.
In the evening of the same day they returned to Columbia, remain-
ing on board their boat all right. The next day they floated down the
river, and landed at the shanty opposite to the mouth of Licking river.
This was about the tenth day of April. The next day was spent in
examining the place, and, being pleased with the situation, they con-
cluded to remain. Mr. Burns located one town-lot and one out-lot.
The out-lot contained four acres. Irwin also obtained a town-lot.
They cleared one acre of ground, which they planted with corn. . .
The double shanty, before mentioned, occupied by Logan, McMillan,
and others, was situated about the head of Front street. Irwin and
Burns located themselves near to it, and put up a temporary shanty,
which they occupied during their stay that summer. The other settlers
were scattered principally between Sycamore and Main streets.
According to Irwin's recollections, the first hewed log
house in the place was put up by Robert Benham about
the first of June on a lot below Main, and between Front
street and the river. All the settlers of the village helped
him at the raising.
Mr. Irwin did not settle permanently in Cincinnati.
He was an ensign in Harrnar's unfortunate campaign, re-
mained at the village the next winter and summer, went
out as a wagoner in St. Clair's expedition, and remained
in Cincinnati a few years longer, in January, 1793, mar-
rying Miss Ann Larimore, and settling finally about four
miles east of Middletown, Butler county. He was a
major in the War of 181 2, and afterwards represented
his county repeatedly in both branches of the State legis-
lature, and was a colonel in the militia He lived to the
age of eighty-one, dying on his farm October 3, 1847.
Another notable arrival of that spring was James Cun-
ningham, from Beargrass creek, now Louisville. The latter
part of May, however, he pushed out beyond the present
site of Reading, where he established Cunningham's Sta-
tion or settlement, and was the first white man to settle
in Sycamore township. The names of some others, re-
corded in the list of purchasers of lots, are undoubtedly
those of actual settlers this year.
In December came Colonel John Bartle, one of the
earliest and best known merchants in the place, who
spent the remainder of his days here, dying December 9,
1839, aged ninety-five.
By the close of 1789 eleven families and twenty-four\
unmarried men were residents of the village. Among]
the men of family were Drs. Morrell and Hoel, Stephen I
and Jacob Reeder, Daniel Kitchell, Samuel Dick, Messrs.
Garrison, Blackburn, and others. There were also the
troops of the garrison, which were numerous after the
arrival of General Harmar with his reinforcement. An
account of the building of the fort, which occurred this
year, and of the fort itself, with its subsequent history,
will be given in the next chapter.
A TRAGEDY.
The tragedy of the year was the drowning of Noah
Badgeley, an immigrant from Westfield, New Jersey, who
was one of the surveyors employed by Judge Symmes.
He had been up the Licking river, in a time of high water,
for a supply of bread-corn, had been successful in his
mission, and was returning when his canoe was overturned,
he drowned, and three other men of Losantiville placed
in imminent danger of drowning. They fortunately se-
cured a refuge in a tree-top, but in the midst of the rag-
ing waters, where they remained for many hours before
relief came.
o
t— t
E-
pej
o
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
37
CHAPTER VI.
FORT WASHINGTON.
A LITTLE ROMANCE.
Judge Burnet, in his Notes on the Northwestern Ter-
ritory, has put on record an entertaining but probably
apocryphal tradition concerning the establishment of
Fort Washington at Losantiville, rather than North
Bend; upon which, in some small measure, it is rea-
sonable to believe, turned the subsequent and widely dif-
ferent fortunes of the two villages. Ensign Luce (Gen-
eral Harmar spelled this Luse), the officer dispatched,
after most urgent and repeated solicitations by Judge
Symmes, from the garrison at Louisville to North Bend,
for the protection of the settlers, had no definite instruc-
tions as to the spot he should fortify. It was expected
by the judge that he would build a permanent work at
the place he had come to occupy; instead of which he
erected but a single, and not very strong, blockhouse,
and presently moved on with his force of twelve soldiers
to Losantiville, where he joined Major Doughty in the
construction of the more elaborate works that were after-
wards named Fort Washington. Now, says Judge Bur-
net:
About that time there was a rumor prevailing in the settlement, said
to have been endorsed by the Judge [Symmes] himself, which goes far
to unravel the mystery in which the removal of the troops from the
Bend was involved. It was said, and believed, that while the officer in
command was looking out very leisurely for a suitable site on which to
build the block-house, he formed an acquaintance with a beautiful
black-eyed female, who called forth his most assiduous and tender
attentions. She was the wife of one of the settlers at the Bend. Her
husband saw the danger to which he would be exposed if he remained
where he was. He therefore resolved at once to remove to Cincinnati,
and very promptly executed his resolution. As soon as the gallant
commandant discovered that the object of his admiration had changed
her residence, he began to think that the Bend was not an advanta-
geous situation for a military work, and communicated that opinion to
Judge Symmes, who strenuously opposed it. His reasoning, however,
was not as persuasive as the sparkling eyes of the fair Dulcinea now at
Cincinnati. The result was a determination to visit that place and
examine its advantages for a military post; which he communicated to
the Judge, with an assurance that if, on examination, it did not prove
to be the most eligible, he would return and erect the fort at the Bend.
The visit was quickly made, and resulted in a conviction that the Bend
could not be compared with Cincinnati as a military position. The
troops were accordingly removed, to that place, and the building of a
block-house commenced. Whether this structure was on the ground on
which Fort Washington was erected by Major Doughty, can not now
be decided. That movement, produced by a cause whimsical and
apparently trivial in itself, was attended with results of incalculable im-
portance. It settled the question whether North Bend or Cincinnati
was to be the great commercial town of the Miami country.
Thus we see what unexpected results are sometimes produced by
circumstances apparently trivial. The incomparable beauty of a Spar-
tan dame produced a ten years' war, which terminated in the destruc-
tion of Troy; and the irresistible charms of another female transferred
the commercial emporium of Ohio from the place where it had been
commenced to the place where it now is. If this captivating American
Helen had continued at the Bend, the garrison would have been erected
there; population, capital, and business would have centred there; and
there would have been the Queen City of the West.
This is a very pretty story, and its narration gives a
beautiful tinge of romance to the local coloring of these
annals. But the well-ascertained and authenticated facts
are against it. There is no other evidence than this gos-
sipy tradition that Ensign Luce built anything at Losanti-
ville, prior to the beginnings of Fort Washington, or that
he had any voice in the selection of a site for the fort.
On the other side, it is perfectly well known that he did
build a work of some permanence and strength (though
Symmes, in a letter of July 17, 1789, calls it a "little
block-house, badly constructed ") at North Bend, and re-
mained there for several months, perhaps until after
Major Doughty had begun the work at Losantiville ; and
that his transfer to that station was determined, not by
an affaire de cceur, but by military considerations solely.
The check which the progress of North Bend received in
1789 was the result of previous Indian murders and
scares, and not merely of the transfer of a handful of
troops. The pretty story, as veritable history, must be
given up. The genesis of Fort Washington, as we shall
presently show, is now perfectly well known ; and Ensign
Luce (or Luse) had nothing whatever to do with it.
Luce, it may be added, resigned in March of the follow-
ing year, and Harmar, in forwarding his resignation to
the Secretary of War, seemed particularly anxious that it
should be accepted.
THE REAL BEGINNINGS.
The determination to plant a fort opposite the mouth
of the Licking, and the commencement of work upon it,
are usually set down for June or July of 1789. We first
hear of the project, however, in Major Denny's Military
Journal, under a date later than either of these. Writing
in his quarters at Fort Harmar, he records :
Aug. 9th [1789J. — Captain Strong, with his two subalterns, Lieuten-
ant Kingsbury and Ensign Hartshorn/ and a complete company of
seventy men, embark for the Miamis.
nth. — Captain Ferguson joined us with his recruits. Major Doughty
follows Captain Strong for the purpose of choosing ground and laying
out a new route intended for the protection of persons who have settled
within the limits of Symmes' Purchase.
Sept. 4th. — Ferguson with his company ordered to join Strong in
erecting a fort near the Miami. Lieutenant Pratt, the quartermaster,
ordered to the same place.
Major Doughty, the senior officer of the troops thus
dispatched to the Miami country, had evidently dis-
cretionary powers as to the location of the fort; for a
letter from' General Harmar, written from Fort Harmar
September 12, 1789, to General Knox, Secretary of War,
contains the following:
Major Doughty informs me, in his letter dated the twenty-first ulti-
mo, that he" arrived at the Little Miami on the sixteenth, and after
reconnoitring for three days from thence to the Big Miami, for an eligi-
ble situation whereon to erect the works for headquarters, he had at
length determined to fix upon a spot opposite Licking river, which he
represents as high and healthy, abounding with never-failing springs,
etc. , and the most proper position he could find for the purpose.
Work, then, was pretty certainly begun upon Fort
Washington about the twentieth of September, 1789.
The site selected was a little east of Western row, or
Broadway, between that and the present Ludlow street,
just outside the village limits, as then surveyed. It was
upon the hill, but not far removed from the brow of it as
the second terrace then existed — right upon the line of
Third street, pretty nearly around the location of the
Trollopean Bazaar for more than fifty years, and extend-
'ng near sixty feet on each side of the present extension
of Third street. The entire reservation, as subsequently
made by the Government for the purpose in the patent to
38
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Symmes, was fifteen acres, upon which the fort stood
near the west and north sides. The position which it
occupied, with reference to present blocks and streets,
may be readily seen by reference to the old maps of Cin-
cinnati, in the books descriptive of the city in the early
day.
In February, 1841, Mr. Samuel Abbey, then a resi-
dent of New England, but a sergeant in Doughty's com-
mand at the time of the erection, revisited the site while
on a visit to Cincinnati, and emphatically identified the
spot between Broadway and Ludlow streets, where Third
street begins to change direction northwardly, as the sta-
tion of the flagstaff of the fort. Mr. Abbey had reached
the advanced age of seventy-five years, but his faculties
were still in vigorous action, and his recollections of
persons and places in the early day of Cincinnati seemed
undimmed.
THE MAIN STRUCTURE
of the fort was square in shape, a simple fortification of
hewed and squared timbers, about one hundred and
eighty feet long on each side, with barracks two stories
high, connected at the corners by means of high and
strong pickets with bastions, or more properly block-
houses. These were doubtless the "four block-houses"
spoken of in one of Timothy Flint's books as observable
here in the early day; though it is singular that he does
not speak of the fort as an entirety. They were also of
hewed timbers, and each projected about ten feet in
front of the sides of the fort, so as to command com-
pletely, by the direct and raking fire of cannon and mus-
ketry, every wall and front of the fortification. In the
centre of the south side, upon the main front of the fort,
was its principal gateway, about twelve feet wide and ten
feet high, secured by heavy wooden doors of correspond-
ing dimensions. This passage into the fort was through
the line of barracks. Upon the north side of the work
and somewhat without it, but connected with it by high
palisades extending to the block-houses at the northeast
and northwest corners, was a small triangular space filled
with workshops of artificers attached to the garrison.
Harmar's own description of the fort, as it existed
when he occupied it as his headquarters, though in an
unfinished state [January 14, 1790], is as follows:
This will be one of the most solid, substantial wooden fortresses, when
finished, of any in the Western Territory. It is built of hewn timber, a
perfect square, two stories high, with four block-houses at the angles.
The plan is Major Doughty's. On account of its su-
perior excellence, I have thought proper to honor it with the name of
Fort Washington. The public ought to be benefited by the sale of
these buildings whenever we evacuate them, although they will cost
them but little.
The general was led to make this remark by the fact
that much of the material of the fort was made up, con-
trary to the usual impression and statement, not of green
logs from the woods, but of the already seasoned and
sawed or hewed timbers and boat-boards from the fiat or
"Kentucky boats" then navigating the Ohio. He says in
the same letter:
About forty or fifty Kentucky boats have begun and will complete it.
Limestone is the grand mart of Kentucky ; whenever boats arrive there
they are scarcely of any value to the owners ; they are frequently set
adrift in order to make room for the arrival of others. I have con-
tracted for the above number for the moderate price of one to two dol-
lars each ; thus much for the plank work. All other expenses (wagon-
hire, nails, and some glass excepted) are to be charged to the labor of
the troops. The lime we have burned ourselves, and the stone is at
hand.
ARIFICERS' YARD, ETC.
An enclosure of some size, separate from the fort and
at no great distance from it, toward the river and a little
east of Broadway, just in front of the site of the great
nine-story steam-mill so well known here in the early
day, was called the Artificers' Yard, in which were
materials for their work, sheds for working and the pro-
tection of articles from the weather, and a pretty good
dwelling, the residence of Captain Thorp, head of the
quartermaster's department at the fort. Between the
fort and the yard, on the Government reservation, near
the southeast corner of Second street and Broadway,
were several log houses, occupied as barracks by a part
of the soldiers.
A spacious and smooth esplanade, about eighty feet
wide, stretched along the entire front of the fort, and was
bordered by a handsome paling on the river side, at the
brow of the hill, which then sloped about thirty feet to
the lower bottom adjoining the stream. The exterior of
the buildings and stockade was whitewashed, and pre-
sented from a distance an imposing and really beautiful
appearance, notwithstanding the rudeness of the material
that mainly entered into it. The officers of the garrison
had their gardens upon the fertile grounds east of the
enclosure, ornamented with elegant summer-houses and
finely cultivated, yielding in the season an abundance of
vegetables.*
ARMY HEADQUARTERS.
One object of the new post between the Miamis was
to furnish an eligible headquarters for the army, nearer
that part of the Indian country likely to cause the settlers
fear and annoyance. As early as September 28, 1789 —
probably at once upon receiving Major Doughty's letter
of the twenty-first — Harmar wrote to General Butler at
Pittsburgh :
Your humble servant is a bird of passage. Some time the latter part
of next month or beginning of November, I shall move down the river,
bag and baggage (leaving Ziegler's and Heart's companies at the post
for the protection of our New England brothers), and shall fix my head-
quarters opposite Licking river.
He was delayed, however, probably by the unfinished
condition of the fort; for, November 10th of the same
year, we find Major Denny making the following entry in
his journal :
The general intends removing to headquarters very shortly, to the
new fort building by Major Doughty, opposite the mouth of Licking
creek.
He did not then get away from the Muskingum until
the twenty-fourth of December, when he left Fort Har-
mar with a small fleet of boats and three hundred men
with whom he landed safely at Losantiville on the twenty-
eighth, and settled his officers and men as best he could
in and about the fort. It is a coincidence of some inter-
est that the first colonists here in like manner left their
point of embarkation December 24th, just two years pre-
* Substantially from Cist's Cincinnati in 1841.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
39
viously, were also four days upon the voyage — though
they had only about one-fifth the distance to traverse,
being delayed by ice in the river — and similarly landed
on the twenty-eighth. Upon the general's arrival, be took
command at the fort, relieving Major Doughty, who be-
came commandant of the small force left at Fort Har-
mar. Fort Washington was now the headquarters of the
United States army.
MILITARY OCCUPATION.
This was the most important and extensive military
work in existence at that period in any of the territories
of the United States. It made a conspicuous figure in
the Indian wars of the closing decade of the last century.
Here, in the summer and fall of 1790, the first year after
its construction, rendezvoused the three hundred and
twenty regular troops and eight hundred and thirty-three
Kentucky and Pennsylvania militia of General Harmar's
ill-starred command, from which they marched Septem-
ber 30th of the same year, to their disastrous defeat near
St. Mary's. Upon the retreat, the exultant savages fol-
lowed their broken columns until they were almost under
the guns of the fort. Hither, too, in the middle of the next
May, came the confident St. Clair with his legions, burn-
ing for revenge upon the red-skinned and red-handed en-
emy, and remained here and at Ludlow's station, recruit-
ing and equipping his forces, until the seventeenth of the
succeeding September, when it likewise marched away to
defeat. Lively times, also, the frontier garrison saw in
1 793 — the "bloody '93" of the French Revolution —
while the forces of Mad Anthony Wayne lay at " Hob-
son's Choice," in the Mill creek valley, preparing most
effectually to reverse the fortunes of war by its trium-
phantly successful campaign against the Indians of the
Miami and Maumee valleys. Soon after its departure a
terrible visitation of small-pox swept off nearly one-third
of the garrison remaining, as well as of the citizens of
the village.
To Fort Washington, also, April 3, 1792, came Major
Trueman, of the United States army, as a commissioner
from President Washington to negotiate a treaty with the
western Indians. He brought instructions from the Sec-
retary of War, and reported formally to Colonel Wilkin-
son, then commanding at the fort. The colonel detailed
Colonel Hardin to proceed with him into the Indian
country, for which they left some time in June. During
the summer information was received by the comman-
dant at Vincennes from a Wea chief that four white men,
who were approaching the Indians under a flag of truce,
had been fired upon, three of them killed, and the fourth,
who was bearing the flag and had on his person the cre-
dentials and other papers of the expedition, had been
taken a prisoner and barbarously murdered the next day.
On the third of July Colonel Vjgo brought the intelli-
gence from Vincennes to Cincinnati. The sad news was
soon confirmed, and the party identified as that of True-
man and Hardin, by prisoners escaping from the Indians
and coming in to Fort Washington. Colonel Hardin,
before his departure, had told a friend in Cincinnati,
Captain James Ferguson, that his presence in the party
would prompt the savages to violate the flag and assas-
sinate him, whom they had long feared and hated. One
of the attendants of the officers was a son of Mr. A.
Freeman, one of the pioneers of Cincinnati. His story
has further notice in the first division of this history.
This incident has been made the groundwork of one of
the most interesting sketches in Benjamin Drake's Tales
of the Queen City.
A STARVATION PERIOD.
In the fall of 1789, even before the entire completion
of the fort, there was danger that the troops would be
forced to abandon it, on account of the scarcity of food.
In this exigency Colonel John S. Wallace, a noted hunter
and Indian fighter, came forward and made a contract
with the military authorities to supply the garrison with
wild meat. He was assisted by two hunters named
Drennan and Dement, and, about ten miles below Cin-
cinnati, on the Kentucky side, they found game in great
quantity — buffalo, deer, and bear — which enabled them
without special difficulty to fulfil their engagements. At
one hunt they secured enough to keep the seventy men
then in the garrison supplied with this kind of food for
six weeks. The troops were also kept in good heart by
a sufficient supply of corn from Columbia, where the
crop of the year was abundant, and contributed largely,
as is elsewhere noted, to the safety of Losantiville and
the fort.
Major Jacob Fowler and his brother Matthew ar.e also
said to have had a contract to furnish the garrison, as
well as the village, with the spoils of the chase, from the
establishment of the fort till some time after St. Clair's
arrival there. They received twopence per pound for
buffalo and bear meat, and two and half for venison — in
Pennsylvania currency, seven shillings and sixpence to
the dollar. They hunted some in Mill Creek valley,
where the game was reputed good, but extended their
hunting grounds ten to fifteen miles into Kentucky. The
skins of animals killed were sold to a man named Archer,
who kept a tannery in or near the town. After a time
the authorities got behindhand in their payments, and
the hunters would sell only to the citizens and the offi-
cers of the garrison.
Writing of the currency of the times, it is worth noting
that the soldiers at Fort Washington were paid in bills of
the old Bank of the United States — a currency locally
called "oblongs," especially at the gambling tables, which
were much frequented by the officers, as well as the
enlisted men and hangers-on of the garrison. A three-
dollar bill was at that day sufficient for the monthly pay
of a private soldier.
CITIZEN AND SOLDIER.
The troops at Fort Washington naturally ' were some-
what at feud with the citizens of the village, notwithstand-
ing their mutual dependence, to some extent, upon each
other. Record will elsewhere be made of a serious af-
fray in the early years of the settlement, in which a party
of soldiers participated. It is very likely that there were
some cases of insolence and tyranny in the conduct
of the officers and their subordinates toward the civilians,
40
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
and that in various ways there were reprisals from the
villagers. In 1790, at all events, Governor St. Clair
thought fit to issue a proclamation declaring the existence
of martial law for some distance about the fort; which,
with other alleged high-handed acts, is thus sharply dealt
with in one of the letters of Judge Symmes to his friend
and associate Dayton :
The governor's proclamations have convulsed these settlements be-
yond your conception, sir, not only with regard to the limits of the
Purchase, but also with respect to his putting part of the town of Cin-
cinnata [sic\ under military government. Nor do the people find their
subordination to martial law a very pleasant situation. A few days ago
a very decent citizen, by the name of [Knoles] Shaw, from New Eng-
land (and one, too, who lived with his family a considerable distance
beyond the limits assigned by proclamation round Fort Washington,
for the exercise of the law martial), was put in irons, as I was yesterday
credibiy informed, his house burned by the military, and he banished
the Territory. I hear his charges are that of purchasing some of the
soldiers' clothing and advising in some desertions ; but of this he was
no otherwise convicted (for he asserts his innocence), than by the sol-
dier's accusation after he had deserted and been retaken, which he
might do in order to shift the blame in some degree from himself in
hopes of more favor. There are, indeed, many other acts of a despotic
complexion, such as some of the officers, Captain Armstrong, Captain
Kirkwood, Lieutenant Pastures, and Ensign Schuyler, very recently,
and Captain Strong, Captain Ford, Captain Ashton, and Ensign Harts-
horn, while General Harmar commanded, beating and imprisoning cit-
izens at their pleasure. But here, injustice to the officers generally of
the levies, I ought to observe that, as yet, I have heard no complaint
of any severity or wantonness in them. The violences of which I
speak are found among the officers of the regular troops, who, in too
many instances, are imperiously haughty, and evidently affect to look
down on the officers of the levies. I hear there are several officers with
their corps arrived at headquarters, but I have not seen any of them, as
I had left Cincinnata a day or two before their arrival, and have not
been there since. It really becomes a very unpleasant place to me, for
I have always had something in my nature which was shocked at acts
of tyranny, and when at that place my eyes and ears are every day sa-
luted with more or less of those acts which border hard on it.
POST COMMANDERS.
The first commandant of Fort Washington was its
founder and builder, Major Doughty, who was super-
seded, of course, by his superior officer, General Har-
mar, upon the arrival of the latter late in December.
Harmar named the fort, which had theretofore been with-
out special designation, upon the arrival of Governor St.
Clair in January, at the same time Hamilton county and
Cincinnati were named — Judge Symmes and St. Clair
having, respectively, the privilege of naming these. Gen-
eral Wilkinson assumed command after Harmar's de-
feat, continuing the fort as headquarters of the army.
Captain William Henry Harrison, whose earliest military
life was identified with the fort, was in command from
1795 until his resignation, three years thereafter. Cap-
tain Edward Miller was commandant in May and June,
1799; but how long before and after we have been unable
to ascertain. The next year Lieutenant Peter Shiras
"held the fort," and he is the last of the post comman-
ders of whom we have certain information, though Major
Zeigler doubtless came near him as post commandant,
either before or after that date.
OTHER OFFICERS.
One of General Harmar's letters, dated June 9, 1790,
furnishes a full roster of the commissioned officers then
at the fort. They were: General Harmar, Captain
Ferguson, Captain Strong, Captain M'Curdy, Captain
Beatty, Lieutenant Armstong, Lieutenant Kerney (Kear-
sey?), Lieutenant Ford, Lieutenant Pratt, Lieutenant
Denny, Ensign Sedam, Ensign Hartshorn, Ensign Thomp.
son, Doctor Allison. Some of these, as Sedam, Allison,
and one or two others, will be recognized as well known
names in the annals of Cincinnati.
ABANDONMENT.
In 1803 the United States acquired, by gift and pur-
chase, from General James Taylor, a part of the ground
upon which Newport barracks were built and now stand.
General Charles Scott acted for the Government, took
the deed and paid the purchase money. The barracks
were ready for the reception of the troops the next year,
when Fort Washington was evacuated and its garrison
transferred to the opposite shore. The history of Fort
Washington is thenceforth quite uneventful, though some
noted citizens of Cincinnati, as Dr. William Goforth and
his promising young student, Daniel Drake, from time to
time occupied rooms or dwellings in it.
THE BREAK-UP.
In 1808, in pursuance of an order of Congress, the
military reservation at Cincinnati was condemned and
ordered to be sold with the structures thereon. General
Jared Mansfield, then surveyor-general of the Northwest,
was directed to supervise the sale. He had the tract of
fifteen acres subdivided into lots and sold in early March
through the land office at Cincinnati. The old site of
the fort, near the Trollopean Bazaar, is now among the
most thickly built districts of the city. The demolition
and sale of the buildings took place on St. Patrick's
Day, March 17, was at public vendue and attended by
the entire population of the city and vicinity, who made
a gala-day of the event. Little of the material was
valuable except for firewood, and much of it was sold for
this purpose. Colonel Stephen McFarland, father of
the venerable Isaac B. McFarland, who is still residing
on Park street and well remembers this day, lived
adjacent to the fort, and bought the logs of the cabins
between it and Artificers' Yard, which fed his fires for
some years. Mr. Joseph Coppin, of Pleasant Ridge, late
president of the Cincinnati Pioneer association, was also
present at the sale and thus describes a ludicrous inci-
dent of it:
During the taking down of the fort, two men got into a fight, and
upset a barrel of soft soap. Here they were down in soap, and then in
the dirt; and when the people thought they had fought enough and
were fit for the river, they marched them down to the tune of the
"Rogue's March," and in the river they had to go and wash off in
presence of the crowd that followed.
NOTES AND INCIDENTS.
The first well in Cincinnati was dug at the fort in
1 79 1, by an eccentric wanderer calling himself John
Robert Shaw, who afterwards published a little book in
Kentucky, giving an account of his adventures,, with rude
illustrations, probably designed and executed by himself.
He was called by the early settlers "the water-witch,"
from his skill in divining water by the forked rod, and
was sent for from long distances to find it.
So late as 1802, a book published in Paris, entitled
Voyage a la Louisiane, par B D , gives Fort
O/J c
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
4i
ashington a place by name upon the map prefixed, but
no Cincinnati appears, nor either of the Miami rivers.
Upon other old maps Fort Washington is sometimes
given as a locality in the neighborhood of Cincinnati,
which is also set down, but generally in its proper place.
In 1789 two soldiers, named John Ayers and Matthew
Ratmore, were shot at the southeast corner of the fort,
for desertion. These were the first executions in the
place.
In a description of Cincinnati, as he first saw the vil-
lage in February, 1791, the Rev. Oliver M. Spencer in-
cludes the following notice of the fort:
On the top and about eighty feet distant from the brow of the second
bank, facing the river, stood Fort Washington, occupying nearly all
the ground between Third and Fourth streets, and between Ludlow
street and Broadway. This fort, of nearly a square form, was simply
a wooden fortification, whose four sides or walls, each about one hun-
dred and eighty feet long, were constructed of hewed logs, erected into
barracks two stories high, connected at the corners by high pickets,
with bastions or block-houses, also of hewed logs and projecting about
ten feet in front of each side of the fort, so that the cannon piaced
• within them could be brought to rake its walls. Through the centre of
the south side or front of this fort was the principal gateway, a passage
through this line of barracks about twelve feet wide and ten feet high,
secured by strong wooden doors of the same dimensions. Appended
to the fort on its north side, and enclosed with high palisades extend-
ing from its northeast and northwest corners to a block-house, was a
small triangular space; in which were constructed shops for the accom-
modation of the artificers. Extending along the whole front of the fort
was a fine esplanade, about eighty feet wide and enclosed with a hand-
some paling on the brow of the bank, the descent from which to the
lower bottom was sloping, sbout thirty feet. The front and sides of
the fort were whitewashed, andat a small distance presented a handsome
and imposing appearance. On the eastern side were the officers' gar-
dens, finely cultivated, ornnmented with beautiful summer houses, and
yielding in their season abundance of vegetables. *
Judge Burnet gives the following account of the fort,
as he remembered seeing it first in 1795 :
In Cincinnati, Fort Washington was the most remarkable object.
That rude but highly interesting structure stood between Third and
Fourth streets produced, east of Eastern row, now Broadway, which
was then a two-pole alley, and was the eastern boundary of the town,
as originally laid out. It was composed of a number of strongly
built, hewed log cabins, a story and a half high, calculated for soldiers'
barracks. Some of them, more conveniently arranged and belter fin-
ished, were intended for officers' quarters. They were so placed as to
form a hollow square of about an acre of ground, with a strong block-
house at each angle. It was built of large logs, cut from the ground
on which it stood, which was a tract of fifteen acres, reserved by Con-
gress in the law of 1792, for the accommodation of the garrison.
The Artificers' Yard was appended to the fort, and stood on the bank
of the river, immediately in front. It contained about two acres of
ground, enclosed by small contiguous buildings, occupied as work-
shops and quarters for laborers. Within the enclosure there was a
large, two-story frame house, familiarly called the 'yellow house,' which
was the most commodious and best-finished edifice in Cincinnati. On
the north side of Fourth street, immediately behind the fort, Colonel
Sargent, secretary of the Territory, had a convenient frame house and
a spacious garden, cultivated with care and taste. On the east side
of the fort Dr. Allison, the surgeon-general of the army, had a plain
frame dwelling in the centre of a large lot, cultivated as a garden and
fruitery, and which was called "Peach Grove.".
The anniversary of Washington's birthday, February
22, 1791, was celebrated by a ball at the fort, preceded
by an exhibition of fireworks, the booming of cannon,
discharge of rockets, and other demonstrations of joy
and honor.
The rule at the fort must have been at times pretty
*This is undoubtedly the source from which Mr, Cist drew his de-
scription.
6
severe, if one may judge from the closing part of a letter
written by General Wilkinson, May 11, 1792, while he was
commandant of the fort, to' Captain John Armstrong,
commanding at Fort Hamilton. He thus instructs
Armstrong :
Should any men desert you, the scouts are to take the track, pursue,
overtake, and make prisoners of them ; and for every one so appre-
hended and brought back, you may engage them twe nty dollars, If
the deserter is discovered making for the enemy, it will be well for the
scout to shoot him and bring his head to you ; for which allow forty
dollars. One head lopped off in this way and set upon a pole on the
pajade might do lasting good in the way of deterring others.
ViSociety in the infant Cincinnati largely took its tone
from the official society in Fort Washington. Here, it
must be remembered, were quartered, at various
times, four eminent commanders of the American
army, under the President — Generals Harmar, St. Clair,
Wayne and Wilkinson. In the staffs of these men, and
in more immediate command of the troops, were officers
of culture and polished manners, some of European
education, many of luxurious habits. The living at the
officers' mess tables was generous. It is shrewdly sus-
pected that St. Clair's defeat was due quite as much to
his gastronomic indulgences as to any misconduct of
his men or officers; for he was so afflicted with the gout
during his campaign that he had to be carried in a litter
to the fatal fiekl, and was quite incapable of the most
efficient action.]* General Wilkinson, who succeeded him,
was a gentlemlm and scholar who delighted in surround-
ings of beauty and refinement; and in the schemes for
adornment and social pleasure he was ably and cordially
seconded by his wife. Here, in the wilds of the west,
besides frequent balls and other festivities at the fort,
Wilkinson had a superb barge built and decorated as a
pleasure-boat, upon which he gave banquets and other
entertainments to his officers and friends. Mr. H. M.
Brackenridge, author of Recollections of Persons and
Places in the West, saw this barge in its heyday, and
thus writes of it:
The general's lady and several ladies and gentlemen were on board
of the boat, which was fitted up in a style of convenience, and even
magnificence, scarcely surpassed by-the present steamboats. It was
propelled against the stream by twenty-five or thirty men, sometimes
with the pole, by the cotdelle, and often by the oar. There was also a
band of musicians on board, and the whole had the appearance of a
mere party of pleasure. My senses were overpowered — it seemed an
Elysium! The splendor of the furniture, the elegance of the dresses,
and then the luxuries of the table, to a half-starved creature produced
an effect which cannot easily be described. Every repast was a royal
banquet, and such delicacies were placed before me as I had never seen,
and in sufficient abundance to satiate my insatiable appetite.
The general's countenance was continually lighted up with smiles,
and he seemed the /acre le bouheur of all around him. It seemed to
be his business to make every one happy.
And Herr Klauprecht writes, in his German Chronicle
of the History of the Ohio Valley:
His lady, a charming being, assisted her husband in a truly estim-
able manner, by enlivening the entertainments with the sprightliness
and grace of her amiable soul.
Judge Burnet also writes, in his Notes on the Settle-
ment of the Northwestern Territory :
During a large portion of the year!" they had to endure the fatigues
and privations of the wilderness; and as often as they returned from
those laborious excursions, they indulged most freely in the delicacies
of high living. Scarcely a day passed without a dinner-party, at which
42
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
the best of wine and of other liquors, and the richest viands furnished
by the country and by commerce, were served up in great profusion
and in fine taste. Genteel strangers who visited the place, were
generally invited to their houses and their sumptuous tables.
Atone of those sumptuous dinners, given by Angus Mcintosh, the bot-
tom of every wine-glass on the table had been broken off, to prevent
what was called heel-taps; and during the evening many toasts were
given, which the company were required to drink in bumpers.
CHAPTER VII.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST DECADE.
(Tl
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY.
(The great local events which opened this year were
the visit of -Governor St. Clair, the consequent erection
of Hamilton as the second county in the Northwest
Territory, and the re-christening of the chief town of the
Miamis as its county-seat and the prospective capital of
the Territory.! Let it be borne in mind, however, that
Hamilton county was not in being, and that Cincinnati
was LosantivTTle, so far as public knowledge, at least, was
concerned, during the first three days of this year.
The testimony is express to the effect that the Gov-
ernor arrived at Fort Washington January 2d, sent for
Judge Symmes to North Bend the next day, and on the
fourth issued his proclamation erecting " this Purchase
into a county," as Symmes said, at the same time that he,
as the judge put it in another letter, "made Losantiville
the county-town by the name of Cincinnata, so that Lo-
santiville will become extinct." It is altogether probable
that while St. Clair left to Symmes the designation of the
county (and the judge, in a letter cited below, seems also
to claim the re-christening of Losantiville), he assumed
himself the entitling of its seat of justice, the Queen City
to-be, . and named it from the famous society of which
both himself and Colonel- Hamilton were members —
that society which, in the old words, was " instituted by
the Officers of the American Army at the Period of
its Dissolution, as well to commemorate .the great event
which gave Independence to North America, as for the
Laudable Purpose of inculcating the Duty of laying
down in Peace Arms assumed for public Defence, and of
uniting in Acts of brotherly affection and Bonds of Per-
petual Friendship the members constituting the same.''
This society received its name, as is well known, from
Cincinnatus, the noble Roman agriculturist who, 458
b. c, was called from his plow to become the Dictator of
Rome, in a great public emergency. Its honors are still
shared by a few citizens of the metropolis whose greatness
has helped to give its name renown — gentlemen who
have the blood of Revolutionary heroes. Only seven
other places in the United States or in the world bear the
same title — in Washington county, Arkansas; Pike coun-
ty, Illinois; Greene county, Indiana; Appanoose county,
Iowa; Ralls county, Missouri; Pawnee county, Nebraska;
and Walker county, Texas; — all wholly unimportant
places, except for their great name. There is also a Cin-
cinnatus in Cortland couny, New York.
A paragraph may well enough be given here to Judge
Symmes' spelling of the word as Cincinnata. He retained
this in the date-line of such of his letters as wsre written
from this place, and in other of his writings, for some
years, when he adopted the orthography which has always
been standard. His letters of 1795 bear the heading
"Cincinnati." Long before this he was troubled with
doubts as to the word, whose spelling seems to have been
the result of his own reasonings and inventions, prompted
by his classical knowledge, rather than to rest upon any
recognized authority. In a letter of his, dated June 19,
179T, having written the word once in his epistle, he
diverges from his topics of business into the following
excursus:
Having mentioned Cincinnata, I beg, sir, you will inquire of the liter-
ati in Jersey whether Cincinnata or Cincinnati be most proper. The
design I had in giving that name to the place was in honor of the Order
of Cincinnati, and to denote the chief place of their residence; and, so
far as my little acquaintance with cases and genders extends, I think
the name of a town should terminate in the feminine gender where it is
not perfectly neuter. Cincinnati is the title of the order of knighthood
and cannot, I think, be the place where the knights of the order dwell!
I have frequent combats in this country on this subject, because most
men spell the place with ti, when I always do with ta. Please to set me
right, if I am wrong. You have your Witherspoons and Smiths, and
indeed abound in characters in whose decision I shall acquiesce.
Well reasoned, no doubt, from the. standpoint of the
linguist and the expert in geographical nomenclature;
but the voice of the vast majority, he confesses, was
against him, and the usage in favor of Cincinnati soon
became too strong for him to resist.
( January 4, 1790, Losantiville was no more, and Cin-
cinnati, as a "name to live," began. The wheels of civil
government were soon in motion ; the courts of justice
began to sit; the little community came readily under
the forms of law and order; and the great career of the
Queen City, in a humble way, was opened.] The gov-
ernor remained at the fort during three days, received
the compliments and respects of such of the citizens as
chose to call and pay them, completed his schedule of
civil and military appointments, and then re-entered his
barge and went on his tedious way to Marietta.
One day before St. Clair issued his proclamation estab-
lishing the county of Hamilton, Benjamin VanCleve be-
came a resident of Cincinnati, remaining here until his re-
moval to Dayton early in 1796. He was a prominent and
valued citizen, and has left important contributions to the
memoirs of his times, in the clear and well-written mem-
oranda he then made, some of which have been published
in the second volume of the American Pioneer. He thus
notes the arrival here, wfth other items of interest:
We landed at Losantiville, opposite the mouth of Licking river, on
the third day of January, 1790. Two small, hewed-log houses had been
erected, and several cabins. General Harmar was employed in building
Fort Washington, and commanded Strong's, Pratt's, Kearsey's, and
Kingsbury's companies of infantry, and Ford's artillery. A few days
after this Governor St. Clair appointed officers, civil and military, for
the Miami country. His proclamation, erecting the county of Hamil-
ton, bears date January 2,* 1790, on the day of his arrival. Mr. Tap-
pan [Tapping], who came down with us, and who remained only a
short time, and William McMillan, esq., were appointed justices of the
peace for this town, of which the governor altered the name from Lo-
santiville to Cincinnati.
Mr. Van Cleve served in the quartermaster's depart-
* It was not issued, however, until the fourth.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
43
ment in St. Clair's unfortunate campaign; but, contrary
to the custom of quartermasters' employes, fought bravely
in the action, and got away with much difficulty, though
unharmed. The next spring he was sent by Colonel
Wilkinson, on horseback, as an express to the seat of
government at Philadelphia by way of Lexington and
"the Crab Orchard," reckoned in his instructions as "the
most direct route to Philadelphia," whence he brought
dispatches from General Knox, Secretary of War, to
General Wayne, then at Pittsburgh. He was at Dayton
in November, 1795, when the place was laid off by Colo-
nel Ludlow, and drew town lots for himself and several
others in a lottery held by the proprietors, engaging to
move thither the next spring, which he did, reaching there
with several other persons, including two families, in a
large pirogue from Cincinnati. He says in his diary: "I
raised a good crop of corn this year. In the meantime
flour cost me nine dollars a barrel, and corn meal a dol-
lar a bushel in Cincinnati, and the transportation to Day-
ton was two dollars and a half per hundred weight." In
April, 1797, he removed to Little Beaver creek, seven
miles from Dayton. In 1801 he was appointed to take
returns of all taxable property in Dayton township, which
then included a large tract, as elsewhere noted. In the
War of 1812-15, he commanded a company of riflemen,
and received orders direct from Governor Meigs, May 26,
1812, to march to the frontiers west of the Miamis, and
assist the frontier inhabitants in erecting block-houses
and otherwise preparing for their defense. He never re-
turned to reside in Cincinnati.
I On St. Patrick's day of this year, March 17th, by a tra-
oitien generally received, the first white child was born here
— William Moody, son of a baker from Marietta — in a
cabin on the southwest corner of Fourth and Main streets. J
He is so considered by Mr. Julius Dexter, secretary of the
Historical society, in his introductory note to King's
Pocket-book of Cincinnati; and when he was sergeant-
at-arms to the city council, he was always mentioned in
the city reports and the Directory as "the first white
child born in Cincinnati." He died in the early spring of
1879, shortly after passing his eighty-ninth year, and was
made the subject of the following remarks in the mayor's
message of that year:
Within a few days has died, on Barr street, William Moody, who, as
extraordinary as it may appear, was generally accredited with being the
first white child born in this city. Mr. Moody was born in a log cabin
which stood not far from the corner of Fourth and Main streets. Cin-
cinnati, or Los-anti-ville, as it was* then called, consisted of a few log
cabins mostly located south of Third street, and had a population of
less than two hundred people, the soldiers stationed in Fort Washington
included; yet this child grew to manhood and lived long enough to see
Cincinnati become the Queen City of the West, teeming with an active,
energetic, thrifty population of over three hundred thousand people.
How hard it is to realize the fact that such wonderful, marvelous
changes could take place within the lifetime of a single citizen.
Mr. Moody did not wear the honor unchallenged,
however. Claims have been put forward in behalf of
another, of whom, in a public address, after remarking
that the infant village, in its first year, began to be a vil-
lage of infants, Dr. Drake said: "The eldest-born, of a
broad and brilliant succession, was David Cummins,
whose name is appropriately perpetuated in our little
neighbor Cumminsville, the site of which was then a
sugar-tree wood, with groves of papaw and spice-wood
bushes." He was born in a log cabin, in front of the
present site of the Burnet house; but at what date we
know not. He is probably the same one who is men-
tioned in Timothy Flint's Indian Wars of the West as
John Cummins, and as the first white born here. It is
also claimed in Nelson's Suburban Homes, published in
1873, that the first child born of white parents here was
she who became Mrs. Kennedy, aunt of Mrs. Dunn of
Madisonville, and daughter of Samuel Kitchell. Judge
Carter, too, in his late book on the Old Court House, in
a paragraph devoted to Major Daniel Gano, so long clerk
of the courts here, avers that "he was, I believe, among
the first white children, if not the very first white child,
born in the city of Cincinnati." It is not probable the
person lives who can definitely decide this knotty ques-
tion of precedence.
The first marriage ceremonies in Cincinnati were per-
formed this year by 'Squire William McMillan. He
united two couples in 1790, and several more in 1791.
His first marriages were Daniel Shoemaker and Miss Elsy
Ross (called Alice Ross in Flint's book), Darius C. Or-
cutt and Miss Sally McHenry. The next wedded couple
were Peter Cox and Miss Francis McHenry. Mr. Cox
was killed soon after by the Indians. The records of
the general court of quarter sessions of the peace, to
which transactions of such grave importance to the State
were then required to be reported, do not exhibit these
unions, but do set out the weddings of Benjamin Orcutt
and Ruth Reynolds, of Columbia, by Judge McMillan,
March. 17, 1790; and of Joseph Kelly, of Cincinnati,
and Keziah Blackford, of Columbia, April 22d, by
'Squire John S. Gano; besides two Columbia couples
wedded through the agency of the latter. It was a very
hopeful beginning for Hymen in the little hamlet.
On the Fourth of July, a national salute of thirteen
guns was fired from the fort, and there was a special mili-
tary parade in honor of the day.
In September came Samuel Dick, his wife and two
small children, from Washington county, Pennsylvania.
He was one of the party that marched to relieve Dun-
lap's station the next January, when beleaguered by the
Indians. He purchased the lot at the northeast corner
of Front and Walnut, and built himself a residence upon
it. He also bought other lots and various property,
opened a grocery, engaged afterwards in forwarding sup-
plies to Fort Hamilton and other forts in the interior,
and also kept a tavern in his house. He did not, how-
ever, become a permanent resident, but in 1801 removed
to Indian Creek, Butler county, where he died August
4, 1846.
In October, from Stony Hill, New Jersey, came Eze-
kiel Sayre and family — four sons and two daughters —
one of whom, Huldah, afterwards became the wife of the
esteemed Colonel John S. Wallace, and survived until
November 29, 1850, being at the time of her death the
oldest continuous resident of Cincinnati. Mr. Sayre ul-
timately removed to Reading, in this county. He was
the father of Major Pierson Sayre, a soldier of the Revo-
44
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
lution, who removed from Pennsylvania to Butler county
in 1809, and presently to Cincinnati, where he suc-
ceeded Isaac Anderson in keeping the "Green Tree''
inn. He did not remain long, however, but returned to
Butler county, where he became sheriff and filled other
offices, living to a great age. He died about April 4,
1852. Benjamin, another son of Ezekiel Sayre, became
sheriff of Warren county.
The same month Colonel John Riddle came also from
New Jersey. He worked at his trade of blacksmith for
a few years, and earned enough, mainly by shoeing
horses for the garrison at Fort Washington, to buy from
Judge Symmes, at sixty-seven cents an acre, a section of
land then two miles northwest o*' the village, but now
embraced in the city. 0ne corner of his tract was near
the site of the Brighton House. Here he settled in 1793,
and lived the remainder of his years in the same house,
surviving until June 17, 1847.
C About forty families in all were added to the popula-
tion this year, and about the same number of dwellings,
among which were two frame housesTj There were now
in the village two blacksmiths, two carpenters, one shoe-
maker, one tailor, and one mason. The progress of the
place alarmed the great Miami Purchaser at his un-
promising home down the river, and he wrote in a let-
ter of November 4, 1790:
The advantage is prodigious which this town is gaining over North
Bend. Upwards of forty framed and hewed log two-story houses have
been and are building since last spring. One builder sets an example
for another, and the place already assumes the appearance of a town of
some respectability. The inhabitants have doubled within nine months
past.
This progress, however, was not unalloyed with sor-
row and loss. The Indian depredations were fearful, and
cost the infant Cincinnati fifteen to twenty lives.
Judge Symmes this year laid out an addition of town
lots on the fractional section twelve, next east of the en-
tire section eighteen, upon which Cincinnati, in part, was
originally laid out.^JThe streets through them on this,
the east side of Broadway, were but sixty feet wide, some
diverging from a north and south line forty-four degrees,
and the streets intersecting these running east and west
on lines parallel with the general course of the river.
The directory of 1819 follows its summary of the simple
statistics of this year in the little settlement in the woods,
opposite the Licking, with this interesting paragraph :
About twenty acres in different parts of the town were planted with
corn. The corn, when ripe, was ground in hand-mills. Flour, bacon,
and other provisions, were chiefly imported. Some of the inhabitants
brought with them a few light articles of household furniture, but many
were mostly destitute. Tables were made of planks, and the want
of chairs was supplied with blocks; the dishes were wooden bowls and
trenchers. The men wore hunting-shirts of linen and linsey-woolsey,
and round them a belt, in which were inserted a tomahawk and scalping-
knife. Their moccasins, leggings, and pantaloons were made of deer
skins. The women wore linsey-woolsey, manufactured by themselves.
The greatest friendship and cordiality existed among the inhabitants,
and a strong zeal for each other's safety and welfare.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE.
The Rev. Oliver M. Spencer, in the little book on his
Indian captivity, thus describes the village as he saw it
on his first visit, soon after the advent of his father and
family at Columbia :
About the twenty-second of February, 1791, when I first saw it, it
contained not more than forty dwellings, all log cabins, and not exceed-
ing two hundred and fifty inhabitants. In the southeastern part of the
town, near the site of his present dwelling, stood the cabin of Mr. D.
E. Wade, in the midst of the forest trees, and just below, on the first
bank, between the mouth of Deer creek and Lawrence street, were
scattered among the trees four or five more cabins. Between Eastern
row (a narrow street now enlarged into Broadway) and Main street, on
Front and Columbia streets, there were about twenty log houses; and
on Sycamore and Main, principally on the second bank or hill, as it was
called, there were scattered about fifteen cabins more. At the foot of
this bank, extending across Broadway and Main streets, were large
ponds, on which, as lately as the winter of 1798, I have seen boys skat-
ing. All the ground from the foot of the second bank to the river be-
tween Lawrence street and Broadway, and appropriated to the fort,
was an open space on which, although no trees were left standing, most
of their large trunks were still lying.
His description of Fort Washington, omitted here,
will be found in our chapter on that work.
At this time, says another writer, there was but one
frame dwelling in Cincinnati, which belonged to Israel
Ludlow, and stood at the lower end of Main street.
The room in front was occupied as a store. Matthew
Winton kept tavern on Front street, nearly opposite to
David E. Wade, rather to the west. Ezekiel Sayre was
exactly opposite Wade. John Barth kept the first store
in Cincinnati. This was on the site of the present Cin-
cinnati hotel, and was a hipped-roof frame house. A
German named Becket had a dram-shop opposite Plum
street, between Front street and the river bank. John S.
Wallace resided on Front street, below Race. Joel Wil-
liams kept tavern at Latham's corner.
The twenty-second of February is celebrated in grand
style this year by officers at the fort, in salutes from the
cannon, the discharge of rockets and other firearms, and
a ball in the evening, which was attended by at least a
dozen ladies from the village and Columbia.
In November the fort had a noteworthy arrival in the
person of one William Henry Harrison, a young medical
student from Virginia, who had been studying in Phila-
delphia, but had decided to enter the army, and secured
a humble appointment as ensign in the Sixteenth United
States infantry. He was but a mere stripling, not yet
nineteen years of age; and was at first coldly received
by his fellow-officers, to whom he was a total stranger,
and who had recommended another to the place he had
obtained. He won his way in all good time, however.
The next year he was promoted to lieutenant, in the
spring of 1793 became an aid on the staff of General
Wayne, and was made a captain in 1794, after the bat-
tle of the Fallen Timbers. He will appear in this history
hereafter.
f Legal temperance gets its first record in Cincinnati
this year. On the fourth of July Joseph Saffin receipted
to Squire McMillan, justice of the peace, for sixteen dol-
lars, received by his honor, in full of a fine imposed by
him upon Reuben Read, of Cincinnati, on the informa-
tion of Saffin, who thereby became entitled to it, upon
the charge of "selling spirituous liquors contrary to an
act of the Terrkory of the United States, Northwest of
the river Ohio."\
(jThis was thtfyear of St Clair's disastrous defeat ; and
the savages, before and after that affair, committed many
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OIHO.
45
depredations in and about the village. ) Mr. Benjamin
Van Cleve, who was a young man here that year, has
left the following notes in his memoranda:
The Indians had now become so daring as to skulk through the
streets at night and through the gardens around Fort Washington,
Besides many hairbreadth escapes, we had news daily of persons killed
on the Little Miami or on the Great Miami, or between the settlements.
One morning a few persons started in a pirogue to go to Columbia, and
the Indians killed most of them a little above the mouth of Deer creek,
within hearing of the town. David Clayton, one of the killed, was one
of our family.*
On the twenty-first of May, 1791, the Indians fired on my father,
when he was at work on his out-lot in Cincinnati, and took prisoner Jo-
seph Cutter, within a few yards of him. The alarm was given by hal-
looing from lot to lot until it reached town. I had just arrived from
Leach's [Leitch's] station. The men in town were running to the pub-
lic ground, and I there met with one who saw the Indians firing on my
father. I asked if any would proceed with me, and pushed on with a
few young men without halting. We, however, met my father after
running a short distance, and got to the ground soon after the Indians
had secured Cutter. While we were finding the trail of the Indians on
their retreat, perhaps fifty persons had arrived, most of whom joined in
the pursuit. But by the time we had gained the top of the river hills
we had only eight. Cutter had lost one of his shoes, so that we could
frequently distinguish his track in crossing water courses, and we found
there was an equal number of Indians. We were stripped, and a
young dog belonging to me led us on the trace, and generally kept
about a hundred yards ahead. We kept them on the full run until
dark, thinking we sometimes discovered the shaking of the bushes. We
came back to Cincinnati that night, and they only went two miles fur-
ther from where our pursuit ceased. The next day they were pursued
again, but not overtaken.
On the first day of June my father was killed by them. He was
stabbed in five places, and scalped. Two men that were at the out-lot
with him when the Indians showed themselves, ran before him towards
the town. He passed them at about three hundred yards, the Indians
being in pursuit behind ; but another, as it was supposed, had con-
cealed himself in the brush of a fallen tree-top between them and the
town. As my father was passing it, a naked Indian sprang upon him.
My father was seen to throw him ; but at this time the Indian was
plunging his knife into his heart. He took a small scalp off and ran.
The men behind came up immediately ; but my father was already dead.
f There was not much increase in the population of
Cincinnati this year — about half of the male adult pop-
ulation was out in the army; and many were killed in
conflicts with the Indians, while the successive defeats of
Harmar and St. Clair had discouraged immigration, and
frightened some of the settlers away from "the Miami
slaughter-house," a number going over into Kentucky.
No new manufactures were started in the place, except a
horse-mill for grinding corn/\ It stood below Fourth
street, near Main, and the Presbyterians sometimes held
their meetings in it, when they could not/neet in the
open air, their house not yet being built. (/Prices were
high — flour ten dollars per barrel, salt eight, and town
property was still very low. Lot thirteen, on the original
town-plat, was sold this year to Major Ferguson for eleven
dollars. It comprised one hundred feet on Broadway by
two hundred on Fourth, at the southwest corner of these
streets^
Theapparently slight tenures by which property now
of enormous value was held by some of its early posses-
sors— tenures becoming strong enough, however, when
confirmed by twenty-one years' undisputed possession —
are illustrated hy the following exceedingly brief warranty-
deed and assignment. It will be observed that the as-
signment made by Mr. Cook does not even name the as-
*This did not occur until the next year.
signee, and that the year of date is not given in the lead-
ing instrument. The property thus simply conveyed
comprises one hundred feet by two hundred on Sycamore
street between Third and Fourth, and is now, of course,
exceedingly valuable:
Know all men by these presents that I, Jonathan Fitts, do hereby
bind myself, my heirs, etc. , to hold and defend to Peyton Cook my right,
title, and claim to a town lot in Cincinnati, viz: No. 61. The right of
said lot to said Fitts have by these presents vested in said Cook, for
value received, this 28th August.
Test. John Vance. Jonathan Fitts.
(Endorsed)
I do hereby assign my right and title to the within said lot for value
received, as witness my hand and seal this 25th Jan., 1791.
Testas, B. Brown. Peyton Cook.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO.
On the twelfth of February occurred the first serious
affray which disgraced the town. Lieutenant Thomas
Pastern, of the garrison, had a quarrel with Bartle, the
storekeeper, whose place was where the old Spencer
house now stands, and beat him severely. Bartle
prosecuted his assailant; and his attorney, one Blan-
chard, was so severe upon the officer and showed
him up in such a contemptible character that his ire
was excited anew, and he brought a sergeant and thirty
soldiers from the fort to whip the lawyer and his defend-
ers. An affray of some magnitude was the result. It
occurred on Main street, in and about the office of the
justice, William McMillan. The soldiers were met by
about eighteen citizens and a number of the militia, the
squire and Colonel John Riddle being prominent in the
melee, and were driven away after a sharp contest. The
affair caused great excitement in the village and at the
fort. General Wilkinson, then commandant, reduced
the sergeant to the ranks, and issued a general order
deprecating the unhappy occurrence. The lieutenant
was tried at the next quarter-sessions, and fined three
dollars. But for his orders to the soldiers to make the
attack, they would have been included in the punishment
inflicted by Williamson.
/This year is rather celebrated for "first things." The
First Presbyterian church, or church of any kind here
was put up, as will be more fully related hereafter. The
first execution under sentence of the courts occurred
that of James Mays, for murder, executed by Sheriff
John Ludlow. The first school was opened, with thirty
pupils. The first ferry between Cincinnati and Newport
was opened, by Captain Robert Benham, whose-lk#nse
fii2mj]ie-terut©riaijwthe«ties-Ji^^
XTXTPart-t- The first great flood since the settlement
began occurred, flooding the entire Bottom to the average
depth of five feet, and drowning out many of the inhabi-
tants. \ The Fourth of July was celebrated by thirteen
rounds from the cannon of the fort in the morning and
again at noon; the troops were paraded and had a special
drill; there wereadinner and toasts, witrfmore cannon-
firing; and at night a brilliant exhibition of fireworks and
aJsall.
(^Between forty and fifty immigrants arrived in Cincin-
nati this year, and several-ignore cabins, with three or four
frame houses, were put up.) In this year Mr. James Fer-
guson, who had been out in Harmar's campaign as a vol-
46
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
unteer/lopened a store on the corner of Third and Syca-
more streets, for general merchandizing. Nearly all
kinds of goods were then procured from Philadelphia.
They were sent for or gone for by the merchant in per-
son over the only road to that city which then existed
to Cincinnati, by way of Lexington, Danville, and Crab
Orchard to Cumberland Gap, thence northwest through
Abingdon, Stanton, Winchester, and Baltimore, and
were received by wagons to Brownsville and thence by
the river to Cincinnati; taking a month or little less for
each way, going and returning. Four to five months
were usually required for the procurement of stocks from
Philadelphia^
James Smith, or "Sheriff Smith," as he was commonly
known, came this year from Cumberland county, Penn-
sylvania, with James Findlay, and continued the associa-
tion with him by forming the well-known pioneer mer-
cantile firm of Smith & Findlay, which was maintained
until about 1802. Their store was in the old quarter,
on Front street, near the foot of Broadway. Mr. Smith
was appointed sheriff some years after his arrival, and
held the office until the State was formed, when he was
elected to it by the people, and held this important post
in all about eight years. He was also, for a part of this
time, collector of taxes in the county, and of the Fed-
eral revenues for the Northwest Territory. He further
acted as Governor St. Clair's private secretary, was cap-
tain of the first company of light infantry formed in Cin-
cinnati, and a paymaster in the War of 1812-15, and was
in Fort Meigs during the siege by the British and In-
dians. McBride's Pioneer Biography says : "Indeed, he
was among the foremost of the early settlers as respects
character, influence, and capacity for business, and pos-
sessed in a large degree that public confidence most
highly prized by gentlemen, the trust reposed in an hon-
est man." He removed from Cincinnati in 1805, to a
farm near Hamilton, and died there in 1834. He was
the father of the Hon. Charles Killgore Smith, who was
born here February 15, 1799, and lived a highly distin-
guished career in Butler county and Minnesota Territory,
of which he was secretary, and for some months acting
governor.
Mr. Findlay was a native of Pennsylvania, and a man
of unusual strength of mind and character. After the
land office was established here in i8or, he was ap-
pointed receiver, and served for many years, until his
resignation. He was made, a few years after the date
given, major general commanding the first division of
Ohio militia, but served as colonel of one of the Buck-
eye regiments in the War of 181 2, and was at Hull's
surrender. In 1825 he was elected to Congress and re-
mained in the House until 1833. He also held accept-
ably a number of minor offices under the State and gen-
eral Governments.
Mr. Asa Holcomb, a well-known citizen of the early day,
was among the arrivals of this year; also, Captain Spencer.
.--- SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE.
In March came another freshet, inundating the whole
plain below the hill. Another disaster fell by and by, in
a terrible visitation of the small-pox, after the encamp-
ment of Wayne's army at Hobson's Choice and its de-
parture for the north. Nearly one-third of the citizens 1
and the soldiers left in the garrison died of the scourge^/
One of the early traders in Cincinnati — who had, how-
ever, but a transient residence here — was Matthew Hues-
ton, who landed on the seventeenth of April, in this year.
He was a Virginia tanner, and had accumulated a small
property, which he invested in wares, principally leather
goods, for a trading voyage down the Ohio. He left part
of them to be sold in Cincinnati, and pushed on to the
falls with the rest. Returning here shortly, he sold out
what stock he had left, about three hundred dollars,
worth, to a ]Mr. McCrea, who cleared out a few days
after, carrying all the goods with him, and leaving Mr.
Hueston without either goods or the money for them.
Hueston took work for a few weeks in the tannery after-
ward Jesse Hunt's, and then engaged with Robert and
William McClellan, pack-horse masters for Wayne's army,
to assist in conducting a brigade of pack-horses to Fort
Jefferson. He subsequently served as commissary in
the army, resigning in 1795 and for a year pursuing the
business of a sutler and general trader. He had stores
at Greenville and Cincinnati, the one here being in
charge of Mr. John Sayre, with whom he had formed a
partnership. The business was very lucrative, one to two
hundred per cent, profit being realized on many articles.
Mr. Hueston's property soon amounted to twelve or fif-
teen thousand dollars, which was swept away, as he
alleged, by the misconduct of Sayre, who squandered
the means of the firm by intemperance and gambling ,
and finally sold the remaining stock and ran away, leav-
ing Hueston to pay the partnership debts. This he did,
so far as he was able, and began the world anew by driv-
ing a large herd of cattle through the wilderness to
Detroit, at two dollars and fifty cents a head. He got all
through safely, and returned to Cincinnati within forty
days. Other gains here enabled him to pay the remain-
ing debts of Hueston & Sayre, and to buy a two hundred
acre tract of land, near Hamilton, upon which he settled
and kept a tavern for several years. He died at his later
residence on Four Mile creek, Butler county, April 16,
1847.
In the same month arrived David McCash, a Scotch-
man from Mason county, Kentucky. He bought a
settler's right to a log-cabin on Walnut, near Third street,
and also an out-lot, paying four dollars for the latter. It
was of the usual size, four acres, and covered the ground
where Greenwood's foundry and the Bavarian brewery
afterwards stood. His oldest sonlWilliam, contrived a
rude water-cart of two poles, with a cross-piece in the
middle, the upper ends for shafts^, and pegs upon the
lower parts to keep the barrel on. \With this apparatus he
furnished the first water-supply of the city of Cincinnati.
Mr. McCash also made a wheeled cart, which was a
curiosity, even in those days, the wheels being of wood,
about two and a half feet in diameter and six inches
thick. They were fastened to an axle, which revolved in
large staples. This was the first of Cincinnati drays. :|
On the ninth of November appeared the first news'pa-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
47
per in the city — the Centinel of the Northwest Territory,
edited and published by William Maxwell. The next
month Mr. Maxwell was made postmaster for the office])
established here December 12th, and opened the office
on the west side of Sycamore, near the river bank.
February 7th, came the well-known Colonel John
Johnston, who was forty years in the service of the Gov-
ernment as Indian agent, etc. He survived until the
winter of 1 860-1, dying then at the age of eighty-six.
Griffin Yeatman came June 20th. He was the father of
Thomas H. Yeatman, who was born here July 8, 1805.
The first jail was built early this year, on Water street,
just west of Main. y<7
Lot seventy-sevenl bne hundred feet on Front by two
hundred on Main street, bought in 1789 for two dollars,
was tVus year offered by Colonel Gibson for one hundred
dollars:^ It was accounted worth two hundred thousand
dollars in 1840, and is of course worth much more now.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED
AND Sl*F¥-FOUR.
So late as this year, the daring and successful Cincin-
nati hunter, John S. Wallace, killed bears and an elk on
the Kentucky side. In those days the breasts of wild
turkeys were salted, smoked and chipped up for the table
like dried beef.
On the twenty-second of February the only celebration
of the day seems to have been the starting of the first
through mail for Pittsburgh, in a canoe. /On the first of
August the first line of keel-boats was established between
Marietta and Cincinnati. On the twenty-seventh of
December the first Masonic lodge here — Nova Caesarea
Harmony, No. 2 — was organized. J On the twenty-seventh
of May dangerous fires in the woqds were threatening the
town, and the citizens had hard work to save their dwell-
ings and clearings.
In the spring of this year a detachment of Kentucky
volunteers, accompanied by about a hundred friendly
Indians, encamped on Deer creek, on their route to join
Wayne's army. The savages had with them a young
woman who had been captured in Western Pennsylvania,
and was supposed to have relatives in this place. It
proved not to be so; but a man from near Pittsburgh, who
happened to be here, knew her, and gave the Indians a
barrel of whiskey as a ransom for her. The exchange
was effected at a tavern on Broadway, near Bartle's store,
and the redskins were soon engaged in a grand drunken
frolic. The next day they declared themselves dissatis-
fied with the trade, and threatened to take the girl again
by force and arms. They were resisted peaceably, but
firmly and successfully, by the -friends among whom she
had taken refuge, principally Irishmen. A short time
afterwards, about fifty Indians came surging down Broad-
way, and met the crowd of whites opposite Bartle's store.
They were assailed by a shower of loose rocks, followed
by an attack with shillelahs, which drove them up the hill.
In the thick of this fight was Isaac Anderson, a leading
citizen, who had been taken by the Indians in Lowry's de-
feat, and had a mortal grudge against the race. Captain
Prince sent out a force from the garrison to quell the
disturbance; but it was over before the soldiers arrived.
Thenceforth the cabins on the east side of Broadway,
along the front of which the tide of conflict poured, were
known as Battle row, until 1810, when they were pulled
down. The girl was restored to her family as soon as
possible.
At this time a large tract of out-lots, with some in-lots,
extending from about Sixth street to the present Court,
and from Main street west to the section line, about one
hundred acres in all, were enclosed in a Virginia rail
fence, with no building whatever upon the entire piece
except a small office for Thomas Gowdy, the first lawyer
in the place, which was not occupied by him, as being
too far out of town. In May one of the lot owners,
while burning brush, set fire to the whole clearing, burn-
ing the deadened timber and also nearly all the rails of
the fence, and threatening closely Gowdy's office. This
is reckoned the first fire in Cincinnati.
A distinguished addition to local business and society
was made this year, in the advent of Francis Menessier,
formerly a prominent Parisian jurist and member of the
French parliament. He had been banished from France
in 1789, in the troubles that preceded the revolution,
and joined the Gallipolis colony, whence he came to
Cincinnati, where he became a pastry baker and inn-
keeper on the southeast corner of Main and Third streets,
where the Life and Trust company's building afterwards
stood.
Hezekiah Flint, one of the original forty-nine who set-
tled Marietta, came to Cincinnati April 7, 1794, arifl
spent the rest of his life here. He bought a lot one
hundred by two hundred feet on Walnut, below Fourth,
of James Lyon, for one hundred and fifty dollars. Three
years thereafter he sold the same sized lot on the south-
east corner of Fourth and Walnut for a stallion worth
four hundred dollars. From 1795 to 1800 he cultivated
the square between Fourth, Fifth, Walnut and Vine, op-
posite the college building, as a cornfield.
Daniel Gano and Jonathan Lyon were also among the
prominent arrivals of the year.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE.
The town this year contained about five hundred in-
habitants, and increased but two hundred and fifty from
this time until 1800. It is described at the close of the
year as a small village of log cabins, with about fifteen
rough, unfinished frame buildings, some of them with
stone chimneys. More statistical statements say there
were then here ninety-five log cabins and ten frames.
A new log jail had been put up at the corner of Walnut
and Sixth streets. Not a brick house was yet to be seen
here, and it is said that none was put up until 1806,
when the St. Clair dwelling, still standing on St. Clair
alley, between Seventh and Eighth, was erected with
brick brought from Pittsburgh. A frame school-house
had been put up, which, with the new Presbyterian
church and the new log jail, constituted the public build-
ings. The inhabitants were subjected, every summer
and fall, to agues and intermittent fevers from the malaria
of the swamp still existing at the foot of the upper level,
about Main and Sycamore streets. The intersection of
48
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Main and Fifth streets was still a shallow frog-pond,
full of alder bushes, and crossed by a rude causeway of
logs. It remained for a number of years longer.
The officers at the fort, according to Judge Burnet,
who came early the next year, were much given to
heavy drinking; and he was afterwards able to recall, of
all the officers here under Wayne and St. Clair, only
Harrison, Ford, Clark, Strong, Shomberg, and a very
few others, who were not habitual tipplers. They of
course greatly affected the tone of society; and Judge
Burnet left on record the statement that, of the lawyers
in first practice with him here, nine in number, all ex-
cepting his brother died of intemperance.
Benjamin Perlee, a Jerseyman, and Jonah Martin
were among the immigrants of this year whose names
and dates of arrival have been, preserved. In the winter
Isaac Anderson came, with his family. He had been here
long before, having passed this point with Colonel Laugh-
ery's force, in which he was a lieutenant, in T781, on the
way to their terrible defeat ten miles below the mouth
of the Great Miami, in which every man of the expedi-
tion was killed or taken prisoner by the Indians. Ander-
son was carried to Canada, but escaped in a remarkable,
manner, and reached his home after many wanderings.
He is the one who described Cincinnati, as he saw it up-
on arrival, as a small village of log cabins, including
about fifty rough, unfinished frame houses, with stone
chimneys. There was not a brick, he said, in the place.
He bought a lot near the northeast corner of Front and
Walnut streets, on which there was already a cabin. He
afterwards built a large house on the lot, in which he
kept a store and tavern, the latter familiarly known to the
old settlers as " the Green Tree." He also engaged in
brick-making, and in the business of transporting emi-
grants and freight into the interior. In i8or, when the
public lands west of the Great Miami came into market,
he bought a section above the mouth of Indian creek in
Butler county, to which he removed about ten years
later, and there spent the rest of his life. He lived to
an advanced age, dying December 18, 1839, in his eighty-
second year.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-SIX.
Jacob Burnet came with his brother, George W. Burnet.
Another brother, Isaac G. Bui net, came later, and was
for many years editor of Liberty Hall — was also mayor
of the city. David G. Burnet was still another brother
who came early. It is a famous family in the annals of
Cincinnati. All were fine scholars, well read in literature,
and otherwise liberally educated. George died here after
a few years' residence. David emigrated to Texas and
rose to distinction, becoming the first president of
the Texan Republic. Jacob was then a young man
fresh from his professional studies; but soon achieved
success at the bar, and early rose to important official
stations, becoming finally a senator of the United States
and judge of the State supreme court. Soon after his
lamented death Mrs. Sigourney, the poetess, wrote of him,
in Past Meridian:
The sunbeams of usefulness have sometimes lingered to a late period on
the heads of those who had taken part in the pioneer hardships of our
new settlements. I think of one recently deceased at the age of eighty-
five— Judge Burnet — who was numbered among the founders of Ohio,
the State which sprang from its cradle with the vigor of a giant.
His health had been originally feeble; but the endurance of hardship,
and, what is still more remarkable, the access of years, confirmed it.
At more than fourscore he moved through the streets with as erect a
form, an eye as intensely bright, and colloquial powers as free and fas-
cinating as at thirty. When, full of knowledge and benevolence, and
with an unimpaired intellect, he passed away, it was felt that not only
one of the fathers of a young land had fallen, but that one of the
bright and beautiful lights of society had been extinguished.
Judge Burnet remarked of the town, when he arrived,
that it had made but little progress, either in population
or importance, though it contained a larger number of
inhabitants than any other American village in the ter-
ritory, excepting Marietta; and if the soldiers and others
attached to the army were included in the population, it
would much exceed that of the older town. He notes
his share in the severe sickness of August, 1796, when he
lay in a room in Yeatman's tavern, which was at the
same time occupied by fifteen or sixteen other persons,
all sick.
Samuel Stitt, an Irishman from County Down, came in
May and settled on the river bank, on the spot afterwards
.occupied by Thirkield & Company's and Shoenberger
& Company's works. He became purchaser of this lot,
sixty by one hundred, with a double frame house there-
on, in 1800, for one thousand two hundred dollars.
Thirty-three years subsequently he rented the premises
on a perpetual lease, for the same sum per year. Before
Stitt's purchase it had been bought of Scott Traverse by
Colonel Riddle, 1790, for s^xty-six dollars and sixty-
seven cents. Mr. Stitt saidfthere was not even a horse-
path then on Main street, but a very steep wagon road
went up Sycamore, and a cow-path up Broadway. The
timber on the town plat had been all cut down. There
were no houses between Front and Second streets, except
a few one-story frames, as Gibson's store, at the corner
of Main and Front, and Ludlow's house on the opposite
corner, ■wfaieh — was — rerrted— te — Q~. — &— Bales; — Above
Resw'6 plan' Ciurge Guuier kept' a' lavem. William
Ramsey had a store on the corner of the alley below
Main, wfaaFe-ferrgtraT & Taylui wttfe-roTJg after. Isaac
Anderson arid Samuel Dick owned and occupied lots
west of Front as far as Walnut. William McCann kept
a tavern at "Liverpool's corner," and Freeman, the
printer, resided between Walnut and Vine. On a pas-
ture lot on Deer creek, a little north of Fox's saw-mill,
was a large hollow sycamore, which was used as a shel-
ter or dwelling by a woman who did washing for the gar-
rison. A broken limb, also hollow, served for a chim--
ney. General Wilkinson, commandant at the fort, had
a handsome carriage and pair, the only turnout of the
kind in the place^
Colonel Taylor, the venerable Newport citizen, still
living, says that James Ferguson, who had "been a ser-
geant in Wayne's army, was also a merchant here this
year.
J. W. Browne had a store where Manser's iron estab-
lishment was afterwards, and William and Michael Jones
had a store across the alley; Duffy had the store next
east, and Martin Baum was said to be already here, and
"-^:.
■ ■■ ■
/Z&TP^z**-
■^-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
49
in business at Shoenberger & Company's subsequent
stand. Major Zeigler had a store adjoining Yeatman's
tavern, on the corner of Front and Sycamore.
Governor St. Clair this year bought sixty acres in and
adjoining the town for fifty dollars an acre, later measured
from the canal to Mrs. Mener's line, and from Main to
Plum streets. The half of lot seventy-six, on Front,
near Main, sold on the thirtieth of September for four
dollars. The corner of Main and Fifth, the old drug
store corner, was offered for two hundred and fifty dollars.
Menessier bought the Trust company lot on Main and
Third, one hundred by three hundred, for an old saddle,
hardly worth ten dollars. Another lot at the corner of
Main and Lower Market, one hundred by two hundred,
was offered at two hundred dollars, payable in carpen-
ters' work. Salt was six to seven dollars per barrel ;
powder one to one dollar and a half per pound ; wheat
seventy-five cents to one dollar a bushel; corn thirty-
seven and one-half cents; pork fifty to seventy-five cents
per hundred, and wild turkeys twelve and one-half to fif-
teen cents a pound.
Rev. William Burke and Mr. William Saunders were
also arrivals of this year. In the fall no less a personage
dropped down upon the young Cincinnati than the cele-
brated French infidel philosopher, Volney, then on a tour
of travel and research in this country, the results of which
were embodied in his famous "View." He had made his
way through Kentucky on foot, with his wardrobe in an
oil-cloth under his arm, crossed the river here, and took
lodgings at Yeatman's. He awakened much curiosity, as
his fame had preceded him hither, and Governor St.
Clair, Judge Burnet, and others, tried to ascertain the
object of his visit, but in vain; he was impenetrable.
He seems to have made no published record of his visit
here, except, perhaps, such undistiriguishable remarks
as may have found their way into his "View" in conse-
quence.
On the twenty-fifth of November, however, arrived a
man of different stamp — the Hon. Andrew Ellicott, com-
missioner on behalf of the United States for determining
the boundary between the Federal domains and those of
"his most Catholic Majesty in America," with a large
party. One of their boats had been ruined, in the low
water then prevailing, by dragging over rocks and shoals;
and another was procured here. They staid in Cincin-
nati four days. Mr. Ellicott recorded in his journal:
Cincinnati was at that time the capital of the Northwestern Territory ;
it is situated on a fine high bank, and for the time it has been building
it is a very respectable place. The latitude, by a mean of three good
observations, is 39° s' 54" north. During our stay we were politely
treated by Mr. Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Government, and
Canlain Harrison, who commanded at Fort Washington.
/Another newspaper was started this y tax— Freeman's
(journal, by Edmund Freeman ; which was maintained
Uintil 1800. J
In the early part of March Cincinnati was visited by
a young Englishman who afterwards attained much dis-
tinction, writing himself at last "F. R. S., President of
the Royal Astronomical society." He was Francis Baily,
whose life was written by Sir John Herschel, and pub-
lished in 1856, with Baily's Jonrnal of a Tour in the Un-
settled Parts of North America in 1796 and 1797. We
extract the following paragraph :
Cincinnati may contain about three or four hundred houses, mostly
frame-built. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in some way of bus-
iness, of which there is a great deal here transacted, the town being (if
you may so call it) the metropolis of the Northwestern Territory. This
is the grand depot for the stores which come down for the forts estab-
lished on the frontiers, and here is also the seat of government for the
Territory, being the residence of the Attorney-General, Judges, etc. ,
appointed by the President of the United States, for the administration
of justice. On the second bank there is a block put up with two rave-
lins; and between the fort and the river, and immediately upon the borders
of the latter, is the Artificers' Yard, where a number of men are kept con-
tinually employed in furnishing the army with mechanical necessaries,
such as tubs, kegs, firearms, etc. , etc. On the second bank, not far from
the fort, there are the remains of an old fortification, with some mounds
not far from it. It is of a circular form, and by walking over it I found
the mean diameter to be three hundred and twelve paces, or seven hun-
dred and eighty feet, which makes the circumference very near half a
mile. There are on the ramparts of it the stumps of some oak trees
lately cut down, which measured two feet eight inches diameter, at
three feet from the ground. The mounds, which were at but a short
distance from it, were of the same construction as those I have de-
scribed at Grave creek.
The Fourth of July was observed by a dinner at Yeat-
man's tavern, and a Federal salute from the guns of the
fort. The observance of Independence day was marked
by the first of a long series of local casualties occurring
in this connection. Mrs. Israel Ludlow, in one of her
graceful letters to her father, thus mentions it :
Our brilliant Fourth of July celebration was terminated by a sad acci-
dent. The party opposed to the governor, glowing with all the heroism of
' ' Seventy-six," mounted a blunderbuss on the bank of the river, and with
a few hearts of steel made its shores resound, rivalling in their imagina-
tion the ordnance of the garrison ! Delighted with their success, the
load was increased in proportion to their enthusiasm ; and when the
"Western Territory" was toasted, the gun summoned every power
within it, carried its thunder through the Kentucky hills, and burst in
pieces ! Major Zeigler, on taking a view of the field reports as follows:
Wounded, four men — killed, one gun !
About the same time the Rev. William Kemper offered
to sell his place on the Walnut hills, one hundred and
fifty-four acres, upon which Lane seminary and many
other valuable buildings now stand, for seven dollars per
acre.
John Mahard came this year. A boy named John
McLean, of only twelve years, also landed here, but
.pushed his way through the woods on foot, with blanket
and provisions on his back, to Warren county, where he
made his home the rest of his life, coming finally and
for many years to sign himself a justice of the supreme
court of the United States.
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT.
The territorial legislature met in Cincinnati this year
for its first session. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the
territory, who had become a well known citizen here, was
appointed governor of Mississippi Territory, and Captain
William H. Harrison became secretary in his stead.
July 4th there was a muster of Captain Smith's and
other militia, with Daniel Symmes out as lieutenant col-
onel commanding the battalion.
John M. Wright, an Irishman from the District of
Columbia, arrived and became a trader here. He was a
soldier in the War of 181 2-15. Other arrivals of the
year were Hugh Moore, Samuel Newell, Ebenezer Pru-
5°
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
den, David Kantz, William Legg, and the young lawyer,
Nicholas Longworth.
The simplicity of trade, and perhaps the occasional
scarcity of provisions in the town at this time, are illus-
trated by an incident related in McBride's Pioneer Biog-
raphy, of a young man from Massachusetts, named Jere-
miah Butterfield, who took a voyage in the spring and in
a flat-boat down the Ohio, and visited Cincinnati, "which
was then but an inconsiderable village, composed mostly
of log cabins, with few good brick or frame buildings,
containing not more than one thousand inhabitants. It
contained one bakery, at which Mr. Butterfield applied
for bread to supply the boat's crew; but without success,
the baker having but three loaves on hand, and these
engaged by other persons." It seems to have been
necessary then to engage bread in advance, in order to
make sure of it.
s SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE.
. On the twenty-ninth of May a third newspaper, the
j Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, was startedpy James
\Carpenter. In it Griffin Yeatman inserted the following
unique advertisement:
Observe this Notice. I have expended too many expenses attending
my pump, and any FAMILY wishing to receive the benefits thereof for
the. future may get the same by sending me 25 cents each Monday
morning.
It is said that this was paralleled June 2, 1801, when
two advertisements appeared in the local papers, offering
well-water at four dollars per annum to subscribers, pay-
able quarterly in advance.
Advertisements also appeared in the Spy of hair pow-
der and fair-top boots. July 23d, Robert McGennis
advertises a runaway apprentice, and offers for his recov-
ery a sixpence worth of cucumbers the next December.
The times were hard, and dunning advertisements appear
in many forms, some of them very comical in their terms,
and some regretting that the English language is not
strong enough to express the demands of their authors.
On the eighteenth of June there are rumors of Indian
hostilities, and considerable alarm is excited for some
days. On the twenty-fifth of August the governor ad-
dresses the legislature of the territory, assembled for its
first session.
/ Business was now done mainly on Main street below
f Second, on Front street near the Landrr\g, and on Syca-
Imore within a short distance of Front. \ Robert Park,
the first hatter in the place, was at theX:orner of Main
and Second. In May he advertises hats to exchange for
country produce; also that he buys furs, and wants an
apprentice on good terms, preferring one from the coun-
try.
In June the Spy notes the heat on the twentieth as
103° above, which was higher than had been known here
since thermometers came in. On the twenty-first the
figure was ioo°, an the twenty-second 95", twenty-third
100°, again, twenty-fourth, 101°. It was a genuine
"heated term."
On the Fourth of July there was a fine celebration. Fort
Washington thundered forth the customary salute. The
First battalion of the Hamilton county militia paraded at
their usual mustering place, and went through their evolu-
tions, loading and firing, etc., in a style to elicit the com-
pliments of the governor in his subsequent general orders.
St. Clair, the garrison and militia officers, and many "re-
spectable citizens" dined under a bower prepared for the
purpose. Captain Miller's artillery and the martial music
of the militia furnished ringing responses to the toasts,
which are said to have been in good spirit and taste.
Then, says the primitive account, "the gentlemen joined
a brilliant assembly of ladies at Yeatman's in town."
The Spy for July 23d contained the following note con-
cerning a_ well-known citizen of the county:
Captain E. Kibby, who sometime since, undertook to cut a road from
Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday reduced to a perfect
skeleton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when by some means he
was separated from his men. After hunting them several days without
success, he steered his course this way. He has undergone great hard-
ships, and was obliged to subsist on roots, etc. , which he picked up in
the woods. Thus far report.
The next number contains the obituary of the Rev.
Peter Wilson, the first minister who settled in the com-
munity.
Levi McLean appears before the public from time to
time this year in the multiform capacity of jailer, consta-
ble, hotel-keeper, butcher, and teacher of vocal music.
The only name we are able to record, as that of an
arrival for the year, is that of Aaron Lane, from New Jer-
sey. He ultimately removed to Springfield township,
where he died in 1845.
CHAPTER VIII.
CINCINNATI TOWNSHIP.
Within the decade whose annals have just been passed
in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which
was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government
of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The
township was created, after Columbia, by the court of
general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had
jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of
the erection of these townships, the whole county, which
contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most
conveniently governed as one municipality.
The boundaries of the new township were as follows:
Beginning at a point where the second meridian east of
the town (Cincinnati) intersects the Ohio; thence down
that stream about eleven miles to the first meridian east
of Rapid Run; thence north to the Big Miami; thence
up that stream to the south line of the military range;
thence south to the place of beginning. It comprised
nearly the whole of the present city of Cincinnati, the
townships of Mill Creek and Springfield, almost the en-
tire tract of Colerain, Green and Delhi, stopping on the
north beyond the present dividing line of Hamilton and
Butler counties. It was a vast township.
In 1803 the boundaries were changed as follows:
Commencing at the southeast corner of Miami township,
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
5i
on the Ohio river; thence north to the northwest corner
of section seventeen, in fractional range two, township
two; thence east nine miles; thence south to the Ohio;
thence westward along the Ohio to the place of begin-
ning. These lines enclosed more than half of Delhi
township; the eastern half of Green, except the three
northernmost sections; the whole of Mill creek, except
the northern sections ; and the site of Cincinnati to the
range line on the east.
The voters were now instructed to meet at the court
house and vote for five justices of the peace. The cat-
tle brand for the township, which the court was required
to fix by order, was directed, at the time of the original
formation of the township to be the letter B, A having
already been assigned to Columbia, and C was assigned
to the use of Miami township.
The boundaries of the original great township were of
course rapidly cut down as the county filled up. Dayton
and other townships in the present Butler county, then
in Hamilton, were early set off north of it, beyond the
northernmost possessions of the Cincinnati municipality.
Colerain, Springfield, and South Bend townships were
erected by or during 1795; and when Mill Creek was set
off, the township, being already bounded, at the period of
its formation, by Columbia township on the east, was
shut in to the narrow limits of the fractional surveyed
township, now bounded by Liberty street on the north;
the Ohio river, which Liberty intersects a little above
Washington street, near the southeast corner of Eden
park, on the east and south ; and on the west by a merid-
ian not very clearly defined, but probably the range line
two miles west of Mill Creek, and now the western
boundary of the city. Most of the time since, it may
be said, in general terms, that the limits of the township
have been nearly coterminous with those of the city in
its several extensions.
THE GOVERNMENT
of Cincinnati and Cincinnati township, from 1790 to
1792, was, as the oldest records show, under the immedi-
ate eye of the court of quarter-sessions and the supreme
or territorial court, in one or the other of which sat the
Honorables John Cleves Symmes, George Turner, Sam-
uel Parsons, James Varnum, Winthrop Sargent, Govern-
or St. Clair, and the associate judges and justices of the
quarter-sessions, with special appointees from among the
local prothonotaries, sheriffs, clerks, and constables. At
the sitting of the supreme court in Cincinnati in 1792,
the Honorable John Cleves Symmes presided, assisted
by Judges William Goforth, William Wells, and William
McMillan, and Justices John S. Gano, George Cullum,
and Aaron Cadwell. Joseph LeSure acted as clerk pro
tempore, Israel Ludlow and Samuel Swan being otherwise
engaged. John Ludlow, high sheriff, was assisted by
Isaac Martin, deputy; while in the call of court appeared
Robert Bunten, coroner, and constables Benjamin Orcutt
(the crier), Robert Wheelan, Samuel Martin and Sylvanus
Revnolds. This court exercised both original and ap-
pellate jurisdiction in all things of law, equity, and fact,
and that, too, with more force than formality. When
convicted, a prisoner was turned over to Sheriff Brown
or Ludlow, who, having no sufficient jail, could seldom
keep a prisoner more than twenty-four hours. Witnesses
were necessarily excused when "taken by the Indians,"
or "scalped." Plaintiffs and defendants frequently had
their cases laid over "until they got back from the cam-
paign;" and the honorable court often vibrated between
Isaac Martin's and "the Meeting house," in order to
give themselves a chance to lay aside for awhile their
official dignity and get ready to appear in their turn in the
role of defendants, as very few of the officials escaped from
actions of every sort, from top to bottom of the calendar.
During the year 1792, and for some years thereafter,
Cincinnati was governed by these judicial dignitaries.
In . the quarter sessions court Judge William Goforth
generally presided, assisted by McMillan and Wells, asso-
ciate justices, and by 'Squires Gano, Cullum and Cadwell,
justices of the peace for the county. This year Samuel
Swan succeeded Israel Ludlow as clerk of the court;
John Ludlow became sheriff; Samuel Martin, constable;
John Ludlow and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor;
Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and Ezekiel Sayre, over-
seers of highways; James Miller, Jacob Miller, and John
Vance, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages.
If to these we add the military authorities, who some-
times ordered everybody into line, it will be seen that
Cincinnati was sufficiently governed, containing, as the
city and township then did, less than five hundred peo-
ple. The county commissioners had charge of the pub-
lic improvements, attended to the taxes and their collec-
tion, watched the tax duplicates, managed collectors, and
paid out the funds for wolf scalps, for building jails and
court rooms, and their own bills for services. The cog-
nomens of those who left their names and deeds on the
pages of "the last and only" old worn record are here
given as follows : William McMillan, Robert Wheelan,
and Robert Benham, 1795-6; Joseph Prince, .,1797-8;
David E. Wade, 1799; Ichabod B. Miller, 1800; William
Ruffin, 1801-2; John Bailey, 1802-3; William Ludlow,
1803-4, and John R. Gaston, 1804-5. These men
served,. three at a time, for a year; some were in office but
a year, while others served two or three terms. The
commissioners' clerks, under the territorial government,
from 1790 to 1803, were Tabor Washburne, 1790 to
1798; John Kean, 1798 to 1799; Reuben Reynolds,
1799 to 1800, and Aaron Goforth, 1800 to 1803.
TOWNSHIP CIVIL LIST.
The following-named gentlemen were the earliest offi-
cers in Cincinnati township:
1 79 1. — Levi Woodward, township clerk; Samuel Mar-
tin, constable; John Thompson and James Wallace,
overseers of the poor; James Gowdy, overseer of roads;
Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and James Cunningham,
street commissioners.
1792. — Samuel Martin, constable; John Ludlow and
David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; James Miller,
Jacob Miller, and John Vance, viewers of enclosures
and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder,
and Ezekiel Sayre, overseers of highways.
52
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
1793. — Nathaniel Barnes and Robert Gowdy, consta-
bles; Jacob Reeder and Moses Miller, overseers of the
poor; Joseph McHenry, Samuel Freeman, and Stephen
Reeder, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of dam-
ages; Isaac Martin, Usual Bates, and John Schooley,
overseers of highways.
1794. — Nathan Barnes, Darius C. Orcutt, and Robert
Gowdy, constables; James Brady and David E. Wade,
overseers of the poor; James Wallace, Levi Woodward,
and James Lyon, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of
damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob White, and William Pow-
ell, overseers of highways.
1795- — Nathan Barnes, Ephraim Carpenter, and Ben-
jamin Van Hook, constables; James Brady and Samuel
Freeman, overseers of the poor ; Samuel Dick and Rich-
ard Benham, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of
damages; James Brady, Levi Woodward, and Samuel
Freeman, overseers of highways.
CONSTABLES AT COURT.
It may also be of interest to see here the names of all
the constables who attended the courts of Hamilton
county during the first thirteen years, so far as the rec-
ords exhibit their names. Many of them were consta-
bles of Cincinnati township, but others were from the
county at large, though the court records present no fa-
cilities for locating them in their respective townships :
1790 — William Paul, Joseph Gerard, Daniel Griffin,
Robert Wheelan; Levi Woodward, crier; 1791 — Isaac
Martin, Joseph Jeuet, Gerard; Woodward and John Mor-
ris, criers; 1792 — Wheelan, Martin, Morris, Gerard, Syl-
vanus Reynolds; Benjamin Orcutt, crier; 1793 — Wheelan,
Reynolds, Martin, Nathan Barnes; 1794 — Same, with
Samuel Edwards, Robert Gowdy, B. and D. Orcutt, and
Samuel Campbell; Barnes, crier: 1795 — Wheelan, B. Or-
cutt, Edwards, Campbell, Gowdy, Ephraim Carpenter, B.
Vanhook; 1797 — Woodward, Josiah Crossly, Parvin
Dunn; Abraham Cary, crier; 1798 — Darius C. Orcutt;
Cary, crier; 1799— Crossly; Cary, crier; 1800— Robert
Terry, John Wilkinson, Samuel Armstrong, William
Sayres, Isaac Mills, Thomas Morris, Enos Potter, David
Kelly; John Daily, crier; 1801 — Thomas Larrison, John
Robinson, Joseph Case, Terry, Kelly, Orcutt; Cary,
crier; 1802 — Armstrong, Kelly, Isaac Dunn, Jacob
Allen, Josiah Decker; Cary, crier; 1803 — Samuel and
James Armstrong, David J. Poor, Jerome Holt, Jacob
R Compton.
The following names and dates of public officers in
Cincinnati township, belonging to the later times, have
also been picked up in the course of our investigations :
Justices of the peace, 18 19 — -Ethan Stone, John
Mahard; 1824 — Trustees: Benjamin Mason, Benjamin
Hopkins, William Mills; clerk, Thomas Tucker; con-
stables: David Jackson, jr., Richard Mulford, Zebulon
Byington; justices: Elisha Hotchkiss, Beza E. Bliss,
James Foster; 1829 — Trustees: Benjamin Hopkins,
William Mills, George Lee; clerk, John Gibson; con-
stables: James McLean, jr., James Glenn, William B.
Sheldon; trustees and visitors of common schools: A
M. Spencer, N. G. Guilford, J. Buckley, D. Root, Calvin
Fletcher; magistrates: James Foster, Elisha Hotchkiss,
Richard Mulford; 1831— Trustees: John Rice, William
Mills, Richard Ayres; clerk, John T. Jones; magistrates:
James Foster, Richard Mulford, Isaiah Wing, James
Glenn, James McLean; constables: Ebenezer Harrison,
Josiah Fobes, William B. Sheldon, Ephraim D. Williams,
James Saffin, Livius Hazen, J. A. Wiseman; 1834 —
Trustees: Richard Ayres, Isaac Pioneer, William Bor-
land; clerk, John Jones; justices: Isaac Wing, Richard
Mulford, Josiah Fobes, James Glenn, A W. Sweeney;
constables: Ebenezer Harrison, Ephraim D. Williams,
James Saffin, J. A. Wiseman, Livius Hazen, Thomas
Wright, Benjamin Smith; 1836 — Trustees: William
Crossman, D. A. King, Josiah Fobes; clerk, Samuel
Steer; justices: Richard Mulford, John A. Wiseman,
Ebenezer Harrison, William Doty, Livius Hazen, Rancil
A. Madison; 1839-40 — Trustees: William Crossman,
Josiah Fobes, Thatcher Lewis; clerk, David Churchill;
1841 — Justices: James Glenn, Richard Mulford, William
Doty, John A. Wiseman, R. A. Madison, Ebenezer. Har-
rison; 1844 — Justices: R. A. Madison, Richard Mulford,
Ebenezer Harrison, John A. Wiseman, E. V. Brooks,
Samuel Perry, E. Singer; constables: Robert P. Black,
P. Davidson, A. Delzell, Even Ewan, Thomas Frazer,
Thomas Hurst, Jesse O'Neill, James L. Ruffin, Rode-
camp; trustees: John Wood, William Crossman, John
Hudson; clerk, David Churchill; 1846 — Trustees: Wil-
liam Crossman, John Wood, J. B. Bowlin; clerk, David
Churchill; justices: Mark P. Taylor, Samuel Perry, Eri
V. Brooks, Ebenezer Harrison, David T. Snellbaker,
Erwin Singer, John Young; 1850 — Trustees: William
Crossman, James Hudson, Jesse B. Bowman; 185 1 —
Trustees: Messrs. Crossman and Hudson, and John
Hauck; clerk, John Minshall; justices: John W. Reilly,
David T. Snellbaker, F. H. Rowekamp, Jacob Getzen-
danner, Elias H. Pugh, Joseph Burgoyne, Wick Roll;
1852 — Same trustees.
CHAPTER IX.
CINCINNATI'S SECOND DECADE.
/" EIGHTEEN HUNDRED.
^ The first census of the town and county was taken this
year, and exhibited for Cincinnati (township probably)
but seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, an increase of
but two hundred and fifty in about five years. This,
however, was fifty per cent, of growth, and, relatively con-
sidered, was by no means to be despised. )
Many valuable citizens were added teethe community
during this opening year of the decade. Dr. William Go-
forth, of whom more will be related in our chapter on
medicine in Cincinnati, came in the spring, and his pu-
pil, to become yet more distinguished, Dr. Daniel Drake,
came in December. Stephen Wheeler; Mr. Pierson, from
New Jersey, the father of William Pierson, long a resident
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
S3
of Springfield township; Charles Cone, probably; John B.
Enness, Edward Dodson, Charles Faran, A. Valentine,
John Wood, Caleb Williams, Rev. Dr. Joshua L. Wilson,
pastor of the Presbyterian church, and others who added
character and possibly capital to the young city, were
among the new comers of 1800.
Probably this year, but perhaps earlier, according to a
note in chapter VIII, came one of the most enterprising,
able, and successful of the pioneer Germans — Martin
Baum. He engaged in merchandizing, and was for
about thirty years in active business here, being connected
also with the Miami Exporting company's operations, the
old sugar refinery, and many other large enterprises of
this day, carrying throughout, notwithstanding reverses
as well as successes, the highest reputation for financial
ability and personal integrity. He was one of the pro-
prietors of the site of Toledo when it was laid out for a
town. Late in life he built the elegant mansion on Pike
street afterwards occupied by Nicholas Longworth, and
now by the millionaire philanthropist, David Sinton.
Like many other early business men in the city, he be-
came involved in debt to the United States bank, and hon-
estly surrendered to it in payment his residence and
grounds. He still has a reputation as one of the most
honorable and public spirited Cincinnatians of his day.
Further notice will be given him in our chapter on the
Teutonic element in Cincinnati.
In the spring or summer we hear anew from Jeremiah
Butterfield, of whom mention is made in our notes on
1798. He came again down the river, this time with his
brother and a brother-in-law, young Mr. Campbell, pros-
pecting. They staid a little while at Columbia, and then,
came to Cincinnati, where they engaged in harvesting for
Colonel Riddle, on his section near town. All were
bright, strong, faithful young fellows, and obtained work
without difficulty. Jeremiah was soon engaged by Colonel
Ludlow as chain-carrier, during the survey he was or-
dered to make of the boundary line established by the
treaty of Greenville, during which the party went three
months without seeing a white man's dwelling, and at
one time came near starving; going without provisions
for five days. When the public lands west of the Great
Miami were opened to entry, in April, 1801, he formed
a partnership with several Cincinnatians— Knoles Shaw
and Albin Shaw, Squire Shaw, their father, Asa Harvey,
and Noah Willey— and with them bought a large tract of
land in the north part of the present Crosby township,
extending " into Butler county. He made his own home
on the other side of the line, and died there, full of years
and honors, June 27, 1863. Several of his sons con-
tinue to reside in this county.
On the other hand, Cincinnati was called upon this
year to part with one of her favorite sons, who remained
away from the town and county for a series of years, en-
gaged elsewhere in important public duties. William
Henry Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana Ter-
ritory, and went to take up his residence at Vincennes,
while Mr Charles Wylling Byrd was appointed to the sec-
retaryship of the Northwest Territory. William McMil-
lan esq was chosen by the territorial legislature delegate
to Congress, to fill the unexpired term of General Harri-
son, and Paul Fearing, of Marietta, for the succeeding
two years.
March nth there was a meeting of citizens at Yeat-
man's tavern, to consider the merits of an invention said
to be " capable of propelling a boat against the stream
by the power of steam or elastic vapor." This was, in
one sense, a herald of the "New Orleans," which came
proudly puffing down the Ohio eleven and a half years
later.
No mails came for four consecutive weeks in January
and February. There is now but one newspaper in the
place, and that weekly; so that the failure of mail matter
is seriously felt.
In March the Rev. James Kemper offers for sale his
farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres upon the Wal-
nut Hills, on which Lane seminary and many other valu-
able buildings are now situated, for seven dollars per
acre. He did not sell, however, and lived upon it over
thirty-five years thereafter, when it had risen in value to
fivp thousand dollars.
/On the twenty-seventh of May a tremendous hail-storm
visits this region, breaking out all the glass windows in
town. )
Independence day was observed this year by the mem-
bers of a political" party, the Republicans, who had a din-
uer at Major Ziegler's, next door to Yeatman's tavern.
The memory of Washington had been duly honored in
February by a procession, in which were Captain Miller
and his troops from the fort, the Hamilton county mili-
tia, Captain James Findlay commanding the dragoon
company, the civil authorities, the Masonic order, and
citizens at large. An address was pronounced by Gov-
ernor St. Clair.
About the middle of December a good deal of incen-
diarism occurred, and the people were considerably
alarmed. Fires broke out in various places about town,
but nobody was caught and punished as the author of
the mischief.
The business notes of the year are uncommonly inter-
esting. Imperial or gunpowder tea was three dollars a
pound; hyson, two dollars and twenty-five cents; hyson
skin, one dollar and fifty cents; bohea, one dollar, and
very poor stuff at that; loaf sugar, forty-four cents per
pound; . pepper, seventy-five cents;, allspice, fifty cents.
Andrew Dunseth begins business in November as the
first gunsmith in Cincinnati. August 27th, Messrs. Wil-
liam and M. Jones advertise that "they still carry on
the bakery business, and as flower is getting cheap, they
have enlarged their loaf to four pounds, which is sold at
one-eighth of a dollar per loaf, or flour pound per pound,
payable every three months." In September, Francis
Menessier advertises a coffee-house at the foot of the hill,
on Main street, open from two to nine p. m., also, differ-
ent kinds of liquors, all kinds of pastry, etc. His sign is
"Pegasus, the bad poet, fallen to the ground." He also
teaches the French language. The same month John
Kidd opened a bakery on the corner of Front and Main.
In October William McFarland begins the manufacture
of earthenware, the first of the kind in the place. James
54
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
White, the same month, advertises a day and night
school, and R. Haughton puts himself in print as a pro-
fessor of dancing. There was great demand for money
from creditois afflicted with delinquents, and one pathetic
appeal for his dues is sent out from the Hamilton county
jail by an unlucky physician who is himself immured for
debt. ( Real property remained cheap, and Hezekiah
Flint bought the lot upon which he lived, on Walnut
street below Fourth, for one hundred and fifty dollars.
Some of the Main street property below the upper level
was injured in value by the overhanging of the brow of
the hill, which depreciated the values of the threatened
lots until it was removed. People now began to prefer
to go to the hill, although it was further from the Land-
ing; and settlement up there progressed more rapidly.]
Some curious illustrations appear in the newspaper riles
of this year of the morals of Cincinnati, or the want of
them. A sergeant at the fort advertises that his wife
has not only left his bed and board, but has taken up
with another fellow. A citizen, with a charming frank-
ness, quite uncommon nowadays, boldly announces that
he has caught his wife Rachel and a male offender in
flagrante delicto. Another cautions the public against a
certain woman who calls herself Mary, "and has for a
long time passed as my wife, but who is not, as we were
never lawfully married," thus plainly Indicating the rela-
tions in which they had lived. Still another advertises
his wife as having abandoned him for the second time,
"without any provocation, in any possible shape what-
ever."
A clear, graphic, and detailed picture of Cincinnati, as
it appeared at the close of this year, is presented in a
published address of Dr. Daniel Drake, who entered it
on the eighteenth of December, 1800, as a boy of fifteen,
coming from Kentucky hither to begin his medical
studies. The address was delivered before the Cincin-
nati Medical Library association January 9, 1852, in the
hall of the Mechanics' institute :
(in the first year of this century the cleared "lands at this place did not
equal the surface which is now completely built over. North of the
canal and west of the Western row there was forest, with here and
there a cabin and small clearing, connected with the village by a narrow,
winding road. J Curved lines, you know, symbolize the country,
straight lines the city. South of where the Commercial [later the Cin-
cinnati] Hospital now administers relief annually to three times as
many people as then composed the population of the town, there were
half-cleared fields, with broad margins of blackberry vines; and I, with
other young persons, frequently gathered that delicious fruit, at the
risk of being snake-bitten, where the Roman Catholic church now
sends tys spire into the lower clouds. Further south the ancient mound
near Fifth street, on which Wayne planted his sentinels seven years be-
fore, was overshadowed with trees which, together with itself, should
have been preserved; but its dust, like that of those who then delighted
to play on its beautiful slopes, has mingled with the remains of the
unknown race by whom it was erected. The very spot on which we
are now assembled, but a few years before the time of which I speak,
was part of a wheat-field of sixteen acres owned by Mr. James Fergu-
son and fenced in without reference to the paved streets which now cut
through it. The stubble of that field is fast decaying in the soil around
the foundations of the noble edifice in which we are now assembled.
/Seventh street, then called Northern row, was almost the northern
limit of population. Sixth street had a few scattering houses; Fifth not
many more. Between that and Fourth there was a public square, now
built over. In one corner, the northeast, stood the court house, with a
small marketplace in front, which nobody attended. In the north-
west corner was the jail, in the southwest the village school-house; in
the southeast, where a glittering spire tells the stranger that he is
approaching our city, stood the humble church of the pioneers, whose
bones lie mouldering in the centre of the square, then the village ceme-
tery. Walnut; called Cider street, which bounds that square on the
west, presented a few cabins or small frames; but Vine street was not
yet opened to the river. Fourth street, after passing Vine, branched
into roads and paths. Third street, running near the brow of the upper
plain, was on as high a level as Fifth street is now. The gravelly slope
of that plain stretched from east to west almost to Pearl street. On
this slope, between Main and Walnut, a French political exile, whom I
shall name hereafter, planted, in the latter part of the last century, a
small vineyard. This was the beginning of that cultivation for which
the environs of our city have at length become distinguished. I suppose
this was the first cultivation of the foreign grape in the valley of the
Ohio. Where Congress, Market, and Pearl streets, since opened, send
up the smoke of their great iron foundries, or display in magnificent
warehouses the products of different and distant lands, there was a belt
of low, wet ground which, upon the settlement of the town twelve years
before, had been a series of beaver-ponds, filled by the annual over-
flows of the river and the rains from the upper plains. Second, then
known as Columbia street, presented some scattered cabins, dirty with-
in and rude without; but Front street exhibited an aspect of consider-
able pretension. It was nearly built up with log and .frame houses,
from Walnut street to Eastern row, now called Broadway .J The people
of wealth and the men of business, with the Hotel de Ville, kept by
Griffin Yeatman, were chiefly on this street, which even had a few
patches of sidewalk pavement. In front of the mouth of Sycamore
street, near the hotel, there was a small wooden market-house built over
a cove, into which pirogues and other craft, when the river was high,
y»re poled or paddled, to be tied to the rude columns.
V The common then stretched out to where the land and water now
meet, when the river is at its mean height. It terminated in a high,
steep, crumbling bank, beneath which lay the flat-boats of immigrants
or of traders in fiomi whiskey, and apples, from Wheeling, Fort Pitt,
or Redstone Old FortJ Their winter fires, burning in iron kettles, sent
up lazy columns of smoke, where steamers now darken the air with
hurried clouds of steam and soot. One of these vessels has cost more
than the village would then have brought at auction. ([From this com-
mon the future Covington, in Kentucky, appeared as a cornfield, culti-
vated by the Kennedy family, which also kept the ferry. Newport,
chiefly owned by two Virginia gentlemen, James Taylor and Richard
Southgate, but embracing the Mayos, Fowlers, Berrys, ' Stubbses, and
several other respectable families, was a drowsy village set in the side
of a deep wood, and the mouth of Licking rivej was overarched with
traes, giving it the appearance of a great tunnel^
Lifter Front street, Sycamore and Main were the most important of
the town. A number of houses were built upon the former up to Fourth,
beyond which it was opened three or four squares. The buildings and
business of Main street extended up to Fifth, where, on the northwest
corner, there was a brick house, owned by Elmore Williams, the only
one in town. Beyond Seventh Main street was a mere road, nearly im-
passable in muddy weather, which at the foot of the hills divided into
two, called the Hamilton road and the Mad-river road. The former,
now a crooked and closely built street, took the course of the Brighton
house; the latter made a steep ascent over Mount Auburn, where there
was not a single habitation. Broadway, or Eastern row, was then but
thirty-three feet wide. The few buildings which it had were on the west
side, where it joins Front streejl on the site of the Cincinnati hotel there
was a low frame house, with whiskey and a billiard table. It was said
that the owner paid seven hundred dollars for the house and lot in nine-
fences; that is, in small pieces of "cut money" received for drams.
(North of this, towards Second street, there were several small houses
inhabited by disorderly persons who had been in the army. The side-
walk in front was called Battle row. Between Second and Third streets,
near where we now have the eastern end of the market-house, there was
a single frame tenement, in which I lived with my preceptor'in 1805.
In a pond, directly in front, the frogs gave us regular serenades) Much
of the square to which this house belonged was fenced in, and served
as a pasture ground for a pony which I kept for country practice.
(Between Third and Fourth streets, on the west side of Broadway,
there was, in 1800, a cornfield with a rude fencejsince replaced by man-
sions of such splendor that a Russian traveller, several years ago, took
away drawings of one as a model for the people of St. Petersburgh.
Above Fourth street Broadway had but three or four houses, and ter-
minated at the edge of a thick wood, before reaching the foot of Mount
Auburn.
feast of Broadway and north of Fourth street, the entire square had
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
55
been enclosed and a respectable frame house erected by the Hon. Win-
throp Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory} He had removed
to Mississippi Territory, of which he was afterwards Governor; and
his house and grounds, the best improved in the village, were occupied
by the Hon. Charles Wyling Byrd, his successor in office. Governor
Sargent merits a notice amon? the physicians of the town, as he was
thefirst who made scientific observations on our climate.
{Immediately south of his residence, from Fourth street to the river,
east df Broadway, there was a military reserve. That portion of it which
laid on the upper plain was covered by Fort Washington, with its
bastions, port-holes, stockades, tall flag-staff, evening tattoo, and morn-
ing reveille. Here were the quarters of the military members of our
profession, and for a time for one of its civil members also; for, after
its evacuation in 1803, my preceptor moved into the rooms which had
been occupied by the commander of the post. *In front of the fort,
where Congress street now runs, there was a duck pond, in which ducks
and snipes were often shot: and from this pond to the river, the
tract through which East and Front streets now run was overspread
with the long, low sheds of the commissaries, quartermasters, and
artificers of the armyjj
The post office was then and long after kept on the east side of this
military common, where Lawrence street leads down to the Newport
ferry. Our quiet and gentlemanly postmaster, William Ruffin, per-
formed all the duties of the office with his own hands. The great
Eastern mail was then brought once a week from Maysville, Kentucky,
in a pair of saddle-bags.
/East of the fort, on the upper plain, the trunks of large trees were
still lying on the ground. A single house had been built by Dr. Alli-
son where the Lytle house now stands, and a. field of several acres
stretched off to the east and north. On my arrival this was the resi-
dence of my preceptor. The dry cornstalks of early winter were still
standing near the door. But Dr. Allison had planted jjeach trees, and
it was known throughout the village as Peach Grove.JjThe field ex-
tended to the bank of Deer creek; thence all was deep wood. Where
the munificent expenditures of Nicholas Longworth, esq., have col-
lected the beautiful exotics of all climates— on the very spot where the
people now go to watch the unfolding of the night-blooming cereus —
grew the red-bud, crab-apple, and gigantic tulip tree, or the yellow
poplar, with wild birds above and native flowers below. Where the
Catawba and Herbemont now swing down their heavy and luscious
clusters, the climbing winter vine hung its small, sour branches from
the limbs of high trees. fThe adjoining valley of Deer creek, down
which, by a series of locks, the canal from Lake Erie mingles its waters
with the Ohio, was then a receptacle for drift- wood from the back water
of that river, when high. The boys ascended the little estuary in
canoes during June floods, and pulled flowers from the lower limbs of
the trees or threw clubs at the turtles, as they sunned themselves on the
floating logs. In the whole valley there was but a single house, and
that was a distillery.' The narrow road which led to it from the
garrison— and, I am sorry to add, from the village also— was well
traddenj
{Mount Adams was then clothed in the grandeur and beauty which
belongs to our own primitive forests. The spot occupied by the reser-
voir which supplies our city with water, and all the rocky precipices that
stretch from it up the river, where buried up in sugar-trees^ On the
western slope we collected the sanguinaria Canadensis, geranium,
maculatum, gillenia trifoliata, and otter natural medicines, when sup-
plies failed to reach us from abroad, rrhe summit on which the ob-
servatory now stands was crowned withMofty poplars, oaks, and beech;
and the sun in summer could scarcely be seen from the spot where we
now look into the valleys of the moon or see distant nebulse resolved
into their starry elements.
Over the mouth of Deer creek there was a crazy wooden bridge, and
where the depot of the railroad which now connects us with the sea
has been erected, there was but a small log cabin. From this cabin a
narrow rocky, and stumpy road made its way, as best it could, up the
river where the railway now stretches. At the distance of two miles
there was another cabin-that from which we expelled the witch. Be-
yond this all was forest for miles furtherj>when we reached the residence
of Tohn Smith. . . The new village of Pendleton now covers
that spot. Then came the early, but now extinct, village of Columbia,
of which our first physicians were the only medical attendants.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND ONE.
On the twentieth of February, Dr. William Goforth,
first of the physicians of Cincinnati to do 'so, introduced
vaccination as a preventive of small-pox.
March 20th, the Republicans met and had a jollifica-
tion at Menessier's coffee-house, to celebrate the election
of Jefferson to the Presidency. There is a touch of Red
Republicanism in the published report of the proceed-
ings, that "Citizen John C. Symines" was in the chair.
When, however, the Fourth of July observances came to
be noticed, it was again Citizen J. C. Symmes as presi-
dent, Citizen Dr. William Goforth vice-president of the
day; and so on. There were two celebrations of the
Fourth this year — one at Yeatman's,* and one at the big
spring on the river-bank, just above Deer Creek bridge,
where a broad rock served as a table.
April 27th, the brig St. Clair, Whipple commander,
came down from Marietta, where it had been built, and
anchored off the village. It was the first vessel of the
kind to appear at this port.
In May, upon the expiration of the term for which
Mr. McMillan was elected to Congress, and his return,
a public dinner was given him by his friends, as a testi-
monial of appreciation of his valuable services.
On the nineteenth of August, the first public recog-
nition, probably, of the omnipotent and lucrative Cincin-
nati hog is made in the shape of the following advertise-
ment:
For Sale. — A quantity of GOOD BACON. Inquire at the office.
For a week, beginning the twenty-third of September,
the remarkable migration of squirrels from Kentucky
across the river at this point was going on. Large num-
bers were killed by the settlers — as many as five hundred
in one day — between Cincinnati and Columbia. The
invasion of these little animals was thought to portend
an/uncommonly mild winter.
(On the thirtieth of this month there was a meeting of
citizens at Yeatman's, to secure an act of incorporation
for the village. The same day an announcement ap-
peared of horse races and the Cincinnati theatre — both
the first amusements of their species here. The Thes-
pians gave their performance in Artificers' Yard, below
the fort.^)
On the nineteenth of December the Territorial legisla-
ture gave Cincinnati a sad stroke, by passing a bill on a
vote of twelve to eight, for the removal of the seat of
government from this place to Chillicothe. The resi-
dence of the governor and other officers of the terri-
tory had been here since 1790, and had contributed not
' a little to the prosperity and fame of the place. Novem-
ber 24th, however, some consolation was afforded by the
passage of the act desired for the incorporation of Cin-
cinnati. At the same time Chillicothe and Detroit were
incorporated by this legislature.
During the same month several fires occurred, and
measures began to be considered for the procurement of
a fire engine^)
Some time this year General Findlay was appointed
United States Marshal for the district of Ohio, and Wil-
liam McMillan district attorney. They were the first
incumbents of these offices.
* This famous old tavern, which makes so conspicuous a figure in the
early annals of Cincinnati, was situated on lot twenty-seven, east side
of Sycampre street, corner of Front.
56
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Business this year was not specially noticeable, save the
formation of a company of Cincinnati gentlemen for the
purchase of a silver mine in some locality not stated, but
"situated at a convenient distance from the Ohio."
Mining engineering, we fear, then or since, has failed to
discover or develop that bonanza of the precious metal.
Salt was bringing two dollars a barrel, powder seventy-five
cents a pound, lard twelve and one-half cents, tar fifty
cents per gallon — "for ready money only." Joseph Mc-
Henry, the first flour inspector, was appointed near the
close of 1 8c i.
Among the immigrants of the year were Robert Wal-
lace and John Whetstone. Among the others known to
have arrived by this time, and not heretofore noticed, di-
rectly or incidentally in these annals, were Robert Park-
halter, Ephraim Morrison, William Austin, C. Avery,
Thomas Frazer, Levi McLean, Dr. Homes, Thomas
Thompson, Michael Brokaw, James and Robert Cald-
well, Aaron Cherry, Daniel Globe, Andrew Westfall,
Nehemiah Hunt, Thomas Williams, Benjamin Walker,
Edmund Freeman (a plasterer), John C. Winans, James
Conn, Uriah Gates, Richard Downes, Lawrence Hilde-
brand, D. Conner and company, Larkin Payne, Henry
Furry, George Fithian, Lewis Kerr, Joseph Blew, Isaac
Anderson, Willia'm McCoy, James Wilson, and Andrew
Brannon.
CINCINNATI IN 1802.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWO.
iThe great event of this year was the erection of Cincin-
nati as a village under the act of incorporation of the ter-
ritorial legislature. The limits were Mill creek on the
west; the township line (now Liberty street) about a mile
from the river at the furthest point of the river bank, on
the north; the east boundary line of fractional section
twelve, on the east; and the river on the south J Tem-
porary officers were provided by the act of incorporation ;
but the first municipal election was held the first Monday
in the month. April 3, Major David Zeigler, formerly
commandant of Fort Washington, who had settled as a
citizen in Cincinnati, was elected president of the village;
Charles Avery, William Ramsey, David E. Wade, John
Reily, William Stanley, Samuel Dick, and William Ruffin,
trustees; and Jacob Burnet, recorder. Other officers,
elected or appointed, were: Joseph Prince, assessor;
Abram Cary, collector; James ("Sheriff") Smith, marshal.
Ten of these twelve "city fathers" had previously held
local offices, under the dozen years of territorial or town-
ship rule that had prevailed. Among the candidates for
constable was the versatile Levi McLean, who issued an
electioneering address "to the free and candid electors
of the town of Cincinnati." This was the first and only
election of officers in the village under territorial govern-
ment, Ohio becoming a State November 19th of this
year, upon the adjournment of the Constitutional Con
vention at Chillicothe, after its members had signed the
Constitution.
The first court house for the county -was built this year,
near the northwest corner of the public square; and one
of the first uses of it was for a meeting of citizens, to
gravely determine as to the proposed expenditure of forty-
six dollars by the city council, of which twelve were to go
for fire-ladders and as much more for fire-hooks. Things
changed seventy years later, when millions at a dash were
being voted away for a railroad project.
The first picture of Cincinnati, so far as known, was
made this year, and has since been repeatedly printed.*
It marks the dwellings or places of business of Major
Ruffin; Charles Vattier, corner of Broadway and Front;
James Smith, first door west of Vattier; Major Zeigler,
Second street, east of Sycamore; Griffin Yeatman's, north-
east corner of Front and Sycamore; Martin Bautn's, just
opposite; Colonel Gibson, northeast corner Front and
Main; Colonel Ludlow, opposite corner; Joel Williams,
north side of Water, near Main; Samuel Burt, a log house,
northwest corner Walnut and Front, and two little cabins
west of him; and Dr. Allison ("Peach Grove"), on the
*A large painting of Cincinnati in 1800 has recently been made by
Mr. A. B. Swing, a local artist, from careful studies of the subject, and
exhibited in one of the picture stores on Main street.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
57
hill near Fort Washington. The Fort and Artificers'
Yard, the Presbyterian church, the Green Tree hotel, on
Front street, about midway between Main and Wal-
nut, and another hotel on a street corner, are all the pub-
lic buildings that are shown in the picture, which obvi-
ously does not represent buildings enough for the nine
hundred inhabitants, more or less, there must have been
he^e at that time.
(About the middle of 1802, the first school for young
ladies was opened in the place bv a Mrs. Williams, in the
house of Mr. Newman, a saddler. \
Some time this year Ethan Stoiie paid Joel Williams
two hundred and twenty dollars for lots eighty-nine,
ninety and ninety-one, being one hundred and fifty feet
on Vine by two hundred on Fourth street. Thirty-seven
years thereafter, in 1839, tne larger part of the same
property was sold for one hundred and fifty dollars the
front foot.
A well-known citizen publicly advertises that "the part-
nership between the subscriber and his wife, Alice, has
been dissolved by mutual consent. Another remark in
the notice provokes the retort next week, from his wife,
that she "has never yet stood in need of his credit."
The commerce of the village begins to look up. From
the sixteenth of February to the sixteenth of May, ex-
ports of flour amounted to four thousand four hundred
and fifty-seven barrels.
The known arrivals of 1802 are Ethan Stone, Samuel
Perry and William Pierson.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THREE.
The annals of this twelve-month are brief, but not
wholly devoid of interest. Early in the year incendiary
fires occurred, as many as three in rapid succession.
The citizens were thoroughly alarmed, and a night-watch
was organized and maintained for some time. One man
was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion; but nothing
was proved against him, and the real incendiary remained
undisclosed. {The garrison was removed this year from
Fort Washington to Newport Barracks; and to this
change, possibly, may be attributed the infrequency of
incendiary fires in Cincinnati thereafter. The occasional
feuds between soldier and citizeiL may have had some-
thing to do with them before that.)
(On the sixteenth of June the Miami Exporting Com-
pkny'stoank was opened— the first banking institution in
town. J
Some notable arrivals occurred; as of Christopher and
Robert Cary, grandfather and father of the celebrated
Cary sisters. They came from New Hampshire, remained
in Cincinnati several years and then removed to a farm
near Mount Pleasant, now Mount Healthy, on the Ham-
ilton road, where their descendants and other relatives
are now to be found in some number. On New Year's
day came Thomas and Thankful Carter, grandparents of
Judge A. G. W. Carter, with their promising family of
five boys and three girls. The judge's maternal grand-
father, the Rev. Adam Hurdus, founder of the New
Church or Swedenborgianism in the west came from
England with his family to Cincinnati April 4, 1806.
Judge A. H. Dunlevy, in an address to the Cincinnati
Pioneer association, April 7, 1875, gives the following
picture of the Queen City of this year :
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FOUR.
Cincinnati was then a very small place. The hotel where I put up
as near the northeast corner of Main and Fifth streets, and was kept
by one James Conn, or rather by his wife, who was the most efficient
of the family. . From the customers of this hotel, I think it was
considered the best then in Cincinnati. But at this time the forest trees
stood on the south, east, and north of this hotel property. Directly
south, across Fifth street, Tom Dugan, an old bachelor who left a
large property in Cincinnati, had a rough-iron store; and there were
very few buildings of any size south along Main street, until the corner
of Main and Fourth, where, on the north side, James Ferguson had
the best store, I think, then in Cincinnati. The only access to the
Ohio, where wagons could descend, was at the foot of Main street; and
this consisted simply of a wide road cut diagonally down the steep
bank of the river. In high water there was no other levee than this
road. In low water, however, there was a wide beach ; but this could
only be reached by this road. It may be there was a similar approach
to the river at the foot of Broadway; but if so, I did not see lit. All
north of Fifth street, with the exception of one or two houses, was in
woods or inclosed lots, without other improvements. In coming to
Cincinnati from Lebanon, miles of the route were in the woods, out of
sight of any improvements^ and from Cumminsville, then only a tav-
ern, kept by one Cummins ([ohn, I think), there were but two resi-
dences on the road until you came near to Conn's hotel. One of these
was the residence of Mr. Cary — I think father of General Samuel Cary,
of Hamilton county, as well known.
In May a very useful and honored resident, William
McMillan, one of the first colonists of Losantiville, died,
greatly lamented by his fellow-citizens. His life and
public services will be further noticed in our chapter on
the Bar. of Cincinnati. Mr. Cist wrote of him in Cincin-
nati in 1 84 1 :
There can be no doubt that Mr. McMillan was the master spirit of
the place at that day, and a man who would have been a distinguished
member of society anywhere. It is impossible to contemplate his char-
acter and career without being deeply impressed with his great superi-
ority over every one around him, even of the influential men of the day;
and there were men of as high character and abilities in Cincinnati in
those days as at present. He was lost to the community at the age of
forty-four, just in the meridian of his course, and left vacant an orbit of
usefulness and influence in the community in which no one since has
been found worthy to move.
A town meeting was held this year, to consider the
adoption of measures for a general vaccination of the in-
habitants of the village.
On the fourth of December was issued the first num-
ber of Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury, edited and
published by the Rev. John W. Browne.
A large number of immigrants are registered for this
year. Among them, in the fall, was Colonel Stephen
McFarland, father of the venerable Isaac B. McFarland,
still living in Cincinnati, and Mr. John McFarland and
a sister, of Madisonville. General Findlay, who knew
him in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, had written for
him. His wife and children came the next year. H. M.,
Jacob, and Andrew H. Ernst came this year with their
father, Zachariah Ernst. The family became quite prom-
inent here. Jacob was a printer and author, writing
books on Masonry, etc., while Andrew wrote treatises on
gardening and arboriculture. Ernst station, on the Cincin-
nati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, is named from the
family. Other arrivals were Peaton S. Symmes, Benja-
min Smith, P. A. Sprigman, George P. Torrence (long
presiding judge of the court of common pleas), Jonathan
5»
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Pancoast, Robert Richardson, James Perry, Peter M.
Nicoll, Adam Moore, William Moody, Benjamin Mason,
Casper Hopple, Andrew Johnston, Ephraim Carter, James
Crawford, William Crippen, and Henry Craven.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIVE.
(The village now had twenty-five merchants and grocers,
fifteen joiners and cabinet-makers, twelve bricklayers,
eleven inn-keepers, nine attorneys, eight physicians, eight
blacksmiths, .seven shoemakers, five saddlers, seven tail-
ors, five bakers, three each of tobacconists, silversmiths,
and tanners, four hatters, two each of printers, brewers,
tinners, and coppersmiths, and one book-binder. Its
population was nine hundred and sixty, housed and doin
business in one hundred and seventy-two buildings
Jesse Hunt, on Second street, near Eastern row; Aaron
Goforth, on Walnut, below Fourth; Andrew Lemon, on
Water street; and Joel Williams, also on Water street,
had the only stone buildings in town; while the six brick
buildings were the Miami bank building, on Front, near
Main; Elmore Williams', on Main and Fifth streets; Nim-
mo's, on Main, near Fourth; Judge Burnet's, Vine, near
Fourth, where the Burnet house now is; and two others;
to which was presently added the Rev. John W. Browne's
Liberty Hall office, at the east end of the lower market
house. unfty-three log cabins were still remaining, and
there were a little more than twice as many (one hundred
and nine) frame buildings)
Mr. E. D. Mansfield, long afterwards recalling his Per-
sonal Memories of the coming of his father and family
here, said:
We arrived at Cincinnati, I think, the last part of October, 1805
But what was Cincinnati then? One of the dirtiest little
villages you ever saw. Of course I was not driven around to see its
splendors; but the principal street or settlement was Front street — and
\ that I saw. The chief houses at that time were on Front street, from
I Broadway to Sycamore. They were two-story frame houses, painted
I white. One was that of General Findlay, receiver of the land office,
I . . and subsequently member of Congress for the Cincin-
! nati district.
Mr. Josiah Espy, who made a tour this year through
Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indian Territory, and published
a journal of his travels, came here September 4th, and
stayed two days, making the following note of the place:
Cincinnati is a remarkably sprightly, thriving town, on the northwest
! bank of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the river Licking, and
[ containing, from appearance, about two hundred dwelling-houses —
' many of these elegant brick buildings. The site of the town embraces
both the first and second banks of the river, the second bank being, I
\ suppose, about two hundred feet above the level of the water. - —
\Jn March a great freshet occurred in the Ohio, over-
flowing everything on the lower levels, and sweeping
away houses, stock, and other property./
May 8th, General John S. Gano was appointed clerk
of the courts for Hamilton county. This is noteworthy
simply as the beginning of a very long and useful career
for the Ganos in this capacity, lasting far down the century.
In the same month, on the fifteenth instant, came
Aaron Burr to this village, en route for New Orleans,
while his expedition was preparing and he was meditating
his ambitious, if not treasonable, projects. He does not
seem to have done much mischief here, except to involve
in trouble United States Senator John Smith, through
the evident friendship of the two and Smth's hospitality
to Burr while here.
The Republicans of that time (the political ancestors
of the present Democracy) held the Fourth of July cele-
bration by themselves this year, at a bower in front of
the court house. Judge Symmes was president, Matthew
Nimmo vice-president, and Thomas Rawlins orator of
the day. The light dragoons, Lieutenant Elmore Wil-
liams commanding, made a street parade for this section
of the Cincinnati patriots. Others went with Captain
Smith's company of light infantry to the Beechen grove,
in the western part of the town, where there was a din-
ner, succeeded by nineteen toasts. Some of the toasts
were quite unique. Captain McFarland volunteered one
as follows: "A hard-pulling horse, a porcupine saddle,
a cobweb pair of breeches, and a long journey, to the
enemies of America."
The Cincinnati Thespians held their meetings during
a part of this year in the loft of a stable in rear of
General Hndlay's place, on the site of the old Spencer
house.
On the eleventh of December an ordinance was passed
by the town council for the establishment of a sort of
night-watch, without pay.
This year came John M. Wozencraft, a Welshman
from Baltimore, who remained here for a time, and after-
wards died in South Carolina on his way to England.
The arrival from the same city of forty to fifty families,
with about as many unmarried men, chiefly mechanics,
gave to the town, says the directory of 181 9, the first
spring of anything like improvement.
Joseph Coppin, the aged president of the Cincinnati
Pioneer association for this year 1880-1, came to the town
of Cincinnati December 16th. He is, doubtless, the
oldest man living, who was a resident of the city at that
time. Mr. Coppin was born in Norwich, England, April
8, 1791, and was brought, when a boy, to this country by
his father, who settled in New York city. Young Coppin
walked in the funeral procession organized in that city in
December, 1799, to do honor to the memory of Washing-
ton, then just deceased. He afterwards marched in the
processions that followed to tomb the remains of Alex-
ander Hamilton, slain by Burr in 1804, and of Major
David Zeigler, a native of Prussia, and commandant of
Fort Washington, who died and was buried in Cincinnati
in September, 181 1. He was a boy in his fifteenth year
when brought to this place, and remembers distinctly the
Cincinnati of that day. He worked as a boat-joiner
upon the first barges that were built here for the New Or-
leans trade, and as a house-carpenter labored upon the
famous "Bazaar" built by the Trollopesin 1828-9. The
aged pioneer is spending the evening of his days tran-
quilly at Pleasant Ridge, in this county.
By far the most distinguished arrivals of this year, or
of the decade, were those of General Jared Mansfield
and his family, which included a son, then a little boy of
four years, Edward D. Mansfield, who became one of the
most useful men of his time, and died only last year —
October 27, 1880, at his "Yamoyden" farm near Morrow,
thirty miles from Cincinnati. General Mansfield was of
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
59
English stock, and immediately from an old New Hamp-
shire family; a graduate of Yale college, and thorough
scientist for his day; a teacher in his native State, and at
the Friends' academy, in Philadelphia; author of a
learned work comprising essays on mathematical topics ;
appointed surveyor-general of the United States by Pres-
ident Jefferson in 1803, particularly to establish correct
meridian lines, which had given previous surveyors much
trouble; resident at Marietta 1803-5, and at or near
Cincinnati (at Ludlow's station, and at Bates' place, near
the present workhouse, afterwards called Mount Comfort),
1805-12; wrote a series of papers signed "Regulus," op-
posing the schemes of Burr; established three principal
meridians in Ohio and Indiana; returned to West Point
as an instructor 1814-28, and remained at the east until
his death.
Edward D. Mansfield was also born in New Hamp-
shire; was educated here, in New Hampshire, and
Cheshire, Connecticut, and at the Military academy, from
which he was graduated the fourth of his class, and the
youngest graduate in the history of West Point. He was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the engineer corps,
but, at the instance of his mother, resigned to become a
lawyer. He first prepared regularly for college, entered
the junior class at Princeton, and was graduated with the
first honor. After a course at the Litchfield Law school
he was admitted to the bar, and returned to Cincinnati
the same year, where, or near which city, he thenceforth
remained. He practiced law but a short time, however,
and gave his time mostly to journalism and other literary
pursuits. He was author of the Political Grammar, still
published as a text-book for schools; of a work on Amer-
can Education; of Personal Memories, a life of Dr.
Drake, and many other books and reports, and pamph-
lets of addresses, lectures, etc. He was the first and only
commissioner of statistics for the State, and filled the
place admirably. While a young lawyer here he had for
a time as a partner Professor O. M. Mitchel, founder of
the Cincinnati observatory. In 1835 he was professor of
constitutional law and history in the Cincinnati college,
and was then also editor of the Cincinnati Chronicle.
He subsequently filled many other stations of usefulness,
and continued his intellectual activity almost to the day
of his lamented death.
The arrival of General Mansfield and family was pleas-
antly chronicled nearly forty years afterwards, by Dr. S.
P. Hildreth, of Marietta, in a history of an early voyage
on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with historical
sketches of the different points along them, etc., etc.,
contributed to the American Pioneer for March, 1842.
Dr. Hildreth says:
General Mansfield possessed a high order of talents, especially as a
mathematician, with every qualification necessary to conduct the de-
partment under his control with honor to himself and advantage to h.s
country To a handsome personal appearance was added the most
bland and pleasant address, rendering him a very desirable companion.
Among the sailing vessels built at Marietta between
the years 1801 and 1805, was a beautiful little seventy-
ton schooner called the Nonpareil, constructed by Cap-
tain Jonathan Devoll, one of the. earliest shipwrights on
the Ohio, for himself and sons, and Mr. Richard Greene.
In the spring of 1805 she was finished and loaded for a
voyage down the Mississippi, and General Mansfield de-
termined to take passage upon her with his family — a
son, a nephew, and a servant girl — for his new station at
Cincinnati, which would be "more central and nearer to
the new tracts of government lands ordered to be sur-
veyed in Ohio and the adjacent western territory."
The vessel left Marietta April 21st. Dr. Hildreth thus
records the arrival at Cincinnati, and gives a rapid but
vivid picture of the town as it then appeared :
The Nonpareil now unmoored and put out into the stream, proposing
to stop at Cincinnati to land General Mansfield and family. The dis-
tance between the two towns was one hundred and sixty miles. New
settlements and improvements were springing up along the bank of the
river every few miles; and the busy hum of civilization was heard where
silence had reigned for ages, except when broken by the scream of the
panther, the howl of the wolf, or the yell of the savage. In this dis-
tance there are now no less than twelve towns, some of which are of
considerable importance. They reached Cincinnati after a voyage of
seventeen days, being protracted to this unusual length by adverse
winds, a low stage of water, and the frequent stops of General Mans-
field on business relating to his department, especially that of deter-
mining the meridian and latitude of certain points on the Ohio river,
fit was now the eighth of May; the peach and the apple had shed
tVeir blossoms, and the trees of the forest were clad in their summer
dress. ^Cincinnati, in 1805, contained a population of nine hundred
and fifty souls. The enlivening notes of the fife and drum at reveille
were no longer heard, and the loud booming of the morning gun, as it
rolled its echoes along the hills and the winding shores of the river, had
ceased to awaken the inhabitants from their slumbers. Cincinnati had
been from its foundation until within a short period the headquarters of
the different armies engaged in the Indian wars; and the continual ar-
rival and departure of the troops, the landing of boats and detach-
ments of pack-horses with provisions, had given to this little village all
the life and activity of a large city. Peace was now restored; and the
enlivening hum of commerce was beginning to be heard on the land-
ings, while the bustle and hurry of hundreds of immigrants thronged
the streets as they took their departure for the rich valleys of the
Miami, the intended home of many a weary pilgrim from the Atlantic
States. The log houses were beginning to disappear— brick and frame
buildings were supplying their places. Large warehouses had arisen
near the water for the storing of groceries and merchandise, brought -.
up in barges and keel-boats from the far distant city of New Orleans. I
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIX.
This was a transition year, or rather the beginning of a
transition-period, for the little place. Says Mr. Mansfield ,
in his biography of Dr. Drake (it will be observed that
he_was writing about 1855):
(Cincinnati was then emerging out of a village existence into that, not
of a city, but of a town, In 1806 it was but a small and dirty county-
town. But about that time commenced a career of growth and success
which is unequalled in history. Such success, notwithstanding all /
natural advances, is always due as much to the mind and energy of its
citizens as to all physical causes. If we look to the young men then
aasociated with Dr. Drake and to the older citizens whom I have all
ready mentioned, it will be found that no young place in America has
gathered to itself a greater amount of personal energy and intellectual
ability.1) I have named among the pioneers the St. Clairs, Symmeses,
Burners, Ganos, Findlays, Goforths and Oliver M. Spencer. In the
class of young men, about 1806-7-8, were John McLean, now supreme
judge; Thomas S. Jessup, now quartermaster-general; Joseph G. Tot-
ten, now general of engineers; Ethan A. Brown, afterwards governor,
judge and canal commissioner; George Cutler, now colonel in the army;
Mr. Sill, since member of congress from Erie, Pennsylvania; Joseph
Crane, afterwards judge; Judge Torrence, Dr. Drake, Nicholas Long-
worth, Peyton S. Symmes, David Wade, Samuel Perry, Joseph Pierce,
a poet of decided talent; Mr. Armstrong and John F. Mansfield.*
The last two died early— the former, a young man of great ability,
and the latter of distinguished scientific attainments and high promise.
*Mr. Mansfield's foot-note: " I do not pretend to give a list of all the prom-
inent young men at that time, but only those of whom I have some knowledge.'
6o
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
imparn
Such a circle of young men would grace any rising town, and imr.
to its mind and character a tone of energy and a spirit of ambition. /
During the year this part of the country was visited
and partly explored, after a fashion, by an Englishman
named Thomas Ashe, who chose to palm himself off
during his travels among the western barbarians as a
Frenchman named DArville. He pottered around
somewhat among the antiquities of the Ohio valley, pro-
mulgated the highly probable theory that the earthworks
then still remaining in Cincinnati were the ruins of an
ancient city, and after his return to the Old World, be-
sides publishing a ponderous account of his travels in
America, in three volumes, he issued a smaller volume
entitled, "Memoirs of Mammoth and various extraordi-
nary and stupendous Bones, of Incognita or Nonde-
script Animals found in the vicinity of the Ohio, Wabash,
Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Osage and Red rivers, etc.
Published for the information of the Ladies and Gentle-
men whose taste and love of science tempt them to visit
the Liverpool Museum.'' He was helped to this latter
publication by the indiscretion of that fine gentleman of
the old school, Dr. William Goforth, of Cincinnati, who
intrusted the fellow with a large collection, in ten boxes,
which the doctor had made, with great trouble and at
some expense, from the Big Bone Lick, in Kentucky.
Ashe was to take them abroad and exhibit them through
Europe and the United Kingdom, and send the owner a
specified share of the profits. Instead he coolly sold
them to the Liverpool museum for a round sum, after
exhibiting them in London, and is said to have made a
fortune out of them and his book. He never accounted
for a penny to Dr. Goforth, who must have felt the loss
seriously, as he was not a man of large means.
Mr. Ashe is regarded as very poor authority in scien-
tific speculation or statement of fact; yet his narrative
is undoubtedly correct in parts, and where he had no
object to accomplish in telling a falsehood, it is probable
he can be believed. The following is his view of Cincin-
nati in 1806:
The town consists of about three hundred houses, frame and log,
built on two plains, the higher and the lower, each of which commands
a fine view of the opposite shore, the mouth of Licking, the town of
Newport, and the Ohio waters for a considerable way both up and
down. The public buildings consist of a court house, prison, and two
places of worship; and two printing-prt'ssei are established, which
issue papers once a week. Cincinnati is also the line of communication
with the chain of forts extended from Fort Washington to the west-
ward, and is the principal town in what is called Symmes' Purchase.
The garrison end of the town is now in a state of ruin. A land office
for the sale of Congress lands at two dollars per acre is held in the
town, and made no less than seventeen thousand contracts the last year
with persons both from Europe and all parts of the United States. So
very great and extensive is the character of the portion of the State of
which this town is the fort and capital, that it absorbs the whole repu-
tation of the country, deprives it of its topographical name, and" is
distinguished by that of the "Miamis." In Holland, Germany, Ire-
land, and the remote parts of America, persons intending to emigrate
declare that they will go to the "Miamis."
The commerce at present is conducted by about the keepers of thirty
stores. . . The merchants make an exorbitant profit. Those
of four years' standing, who came with goods obtained at Philadelphia
and Baltimore on credit, have paid their debts, and now live at their
ease.
In general the people of Cincinnati make a favorable impression;
they are orderly, decent, sociable, liberal, and unassuming; and were
I compelled to live in the western country, I would give their town a
decided preference. There are among the citizens several gentlemen of
integrity, intelligence, and worth.
He names with special commendation Generals Find-
lay and Gano, Dr. Goforth, and Messrs. Dugan and
Moore.
The amusements consist of balls and amateur plays, the former of
which going to literary and humane purposes, disposes me to think
them both entertaining and good.
On the sixth of February, the brig Perseverance, from
Marietta for New York, via New Orleans and the Gulf,
dropped anchor at Cincinnati. Commerce with domes-
tic and foreign ports, from the Ohio Valley over the high
seas, is obviously looking up.
On the nineteenth of the month rumors are heard that
excite considerable alarm concerning the movements of
the Indians at Greenville, where the artful Tecumseh has
his lodge, and is daily stirring up strife between the red
and white men. It is this time, however, a harmless
alarm.
March 31st, the United States gunboats, built by the
order of President Jefferson with some reference, it is
supposed, to the stoppage of Burr's expedition, were
launched from the shipyards at Columbia.
From May 4th to August 22dno rain falls, and a great
cry goes up for showers. The whole Miami country is
athirst; the river threatens to disclose the lowermost
stratum ot its rocky bed. A great eclipse of the sun
occurs, in its gloomiest movements making the objects in
a room almost invisible.
A graphic picture of the effect in Cincinnati of the
Burr conspiracy is furnished in the journal of Mrs. Israel
Ludlow (Charlotte Chambers), under date of September
28, 1806:
A report has been circulating that Aaron Burr, in conjunction with
others, is forming schemes inimical to the peace of his country, and that
an armament and fleet of boats are now in motion on the Ohio, and
that orders have actually arrived from headquarters for our military to
intercept and prevent its progress down the river. In consequence of
these orders, cannon have been planted on the bank and a sentinel
stationed on the watch. The light horse commanded by Captain Fer-
guson have gallantly offered their services, and Captain Carpenter's
company of infantry are on the alert. Cincinnati has quite the appear-
ance of a garrisoned town. A tremendous cannonading was heard
yesterday, and all thought Burr and his armament had arrived ; but it
was only a salute to a fleet oiflatboats containing military stores for the
different stations on the river.
Mr. Joseph Coppin, one of the few survivors of the Cin-
cinnati of the second decade, in his inaugural address,
March 27, 1880, as President of the Pioneer association,
gives the following amusing reminiscence :
We had plenty of snow,' but no pleasure sleighs; so the old pioneers
thought that they must have a ride, and they procured a large canoe or
pirogue, with a skiff attached behind and seated for the ladies. To this
pirogue-sleigh were hitched ten horses, with ten boy-riders to guide
them, the American flag flying, two fiddlers, two flute-players, and Dr.
Stall as captain. They did not forget to pass the "old black Betty,"
filled with good old peach brandy, among the old pioneers, and wine
for the lady pioneers— God bless them! And here they went it, merrily
singing "Gee-o, Dobbin; Dobbin, gee-o!" When the riding ended,
both old and young pioneers wound up the sport with a ball — linsey-
woolsey dresses in place of silk on ladies, many buckskin suits on
pioneer men, and moccasins on their feet in place of shoes.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN.
Herr Schultze, a German tourist who found his way to
the Ohio Valley this year and afterwards published his
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
61
ncin-
Travels on an Inland Voyage, thus remarks upon Ci
nati:
It contains about three hundred houses, among which are found sev-
eral very genteel buildings ; it has a bank, market-house, printing-office,
and a number of stores well stocked with every kind of merchandise in
demand in this country. The markets are well furnished, both as to
abundance and variety. Superfine flower [sic] is selling at three and a
half and four dollars by the single barrel, and other articles are pro-
portionally cheap. Ordinary manufactures they have likewise in plenty;
and the country round, being rich and level, produces all the necessaries
of life with but little labour. Fort Washington is situated immediately
at the upper end of the town ; and although, from the increased popu-
lation of the country, it is at present useless, yet, in the early settlement
of this place, it was a post of considerable importance in checking the
inecfrsions and ravages of the Indians.
(February third the Territorial Legislature passes an act
authorizing the imposition of a tax to the amount of six
thousand dollars, for the pecuniary foundation of a Cin-
cinnati University.)
March eleven, me office of General Findlay, the re-
ceiver of public moneys at the land office, is robbed of
fifty thousand dollars, which creates a prodigious sensa-
tion. The perpetrators are found, tried, and sentenced
to be publicly whipped, but are pardoned through the
clerhency of Governor Looker.
f/The third of September brings the first purchase of
fire-engines — hand engines, of course — for the village;
one to be used on the bottom, the other on the hilu)
November third, Judge Burnet, having been peppered
with paper bullets from the Rev. John W. Browne, ed-
itor, in turn castigates him, but with a more material
weapon. Another first-class sensation for the quid-
nuncs of the village.
Mr. Coppin,/he pioneer before referred to, says that
in this year theffirst barres were built in Cincinnati for
the New Orleans tradeAby Richardson & Nolan, for
whom he worked. Thefy were built for Messrs. Martin
Baum, James Riddle, Henry Bechtle, and Captain Sam-
uel Perry, and were rigged like schooners, with two
masts, and the cabins finished like those of a ship.
Another rather notable arrival occurred this year, June
first, in the landing, from a flatboat at the foot of Main
street, of Evans Price, an enterprising Welshman, his
wife and four children, and 'the large amount, for that
period, of ten thousand dollars' worth of store goods.
He had thenceforth a long and active business career in
the city.
In November dies the Hon. William Goforth, sr., the
first judge named for Hamilton county, and a prominent
member of the first State constitutional convention.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHT.
Mr F Cuming, a Philadelphian, came down the Ohio
in May, and in his Sketches of a Tour to the Western
CWenstoyppSeadyat Cincinnati, which is delightfully situated just opposite
the mouth of the Licking rive, This town occupies more ground ^and
eems to contain nearly as many houses as Lexington^ It is on a
douWebank, like Steubenville, and the streets are ,n right lines, inter-
double oan , are of them of bncki and
Te^rea t gent\ well built, well painted, and have that air of
nearness which is so conspicuous in Connecticut and New Jersey, from
whid.at.er State this part of the State of Ohio ,s principally settle*
Some of the new brick houses are of three stones with flat roofs, and
fheTe .s one of four stories now building. Mr. Jacob Burnet, an emi-
nent lawyer, has a handsome brick house, beautifully s.tuated, just out-
side the west end of the town. Cincinnati, then named Fort Washing-
ton, was one of the first military posts occupied by the Americans in
the western country, but I observed no remains of the old fort. It is
now the capital of Hamilton county, and is the largest town in the
State.
By this time, according to Mr. Cuming, the remains of
the fort must have been thoroughly cleared away. The
building and other material had besn sold in March by
order of the Government, and had probably by this time
all been broken up and carted off. The reservation on
which it stood had also been cut up into lots, and sold
through the land office.
On the twentieth of April, in that one day, two brigs
and two "ships" passed Cincinnati, on their way to New
Orleans.
The vote in Cincinnati this year was two hundred and
ninety-eight; in Hamilton county one thousand one
hundred and sixteen.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINE.
There is much excitement and alarm a part of this
year, under the belief, which is general through the Ohio
and Indiana country, that Tecumseh and the Prophet,
still at Greenville, are about to lead the confederated
tribes to another war of devastation and massacre. The
movements in the southwest part of the State are re-
counted in another chapter on the military record of
Hamilton county.
The tax levy for this year is but one-half of one per
cent. ; for the next year but two-fifths of one per cent.,
and for 1811 but thirty -five cents on the hundred dollars.
In the early afternoon of Sunday, May 28th, a terrible
tornado swept through the eastern part of town. Dr.
Drake says, in his Picture of Cincinnati, that "it demol-
ished a few old buildings, threw down the tops of several
chimneys and overturned many fruit and shade trees."
Another gale swept the central part of the village, and a
third the west end. The last was the most destructive
of all, blowing down, wrote Dr. Drake, "a handsome
brick edifice designed for tuition, . . in con-
sequence of having a cupola disproportioned to its area;
and various minor injuries of property were sustained,
but the inhabitants escaped unhurt." The tornado
made a broad track of devastation through the forest on
the hill northeast of town. It was accompanied by copi-
ous showers of rain and hail, with much thunder and
lightning.
The "edifice designed for tuition" was the "Cincinnati
University" building; and its destruction extinguished
the hopes of the enterprise it represented. Some smaller
buildings were razed to the ground, and the roof of Win-
throp Sargent's house was blown off "like a piece of
paper," as Mr. Mansfield records it. This house, he says,
was nearly in the centre of the square north of Fourth
street and east of Broadway, with McAllister street on
the northwest. He thinks it was the only house then in
that part of the city. In the same storm, large oak trees
were torn up by the roots, and some were thrown bodily
across the roads. Mr. Mansfield's account, however,
locates this storm in 181 2 ; but he was probably mistaken
for once.
William D. Bigham came this year, from Lewiston,
62
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Pennsylvania, with his wife and family, four sons and two
daughters. Two other daughters — wives, respectively, of
James Patterson and James Reed — had already removed
to Hamilton county, and were living near the city. He
had made two trips through this country, one in 1795,
and the other in 1801, during the latter of which he
bought three hundred and fifty acres of land a mile and
a half from the town (now, of course, in the city), sev-
eral town lots here, and a tract in Butler county. He re-
mained but about a year, and then moved to his place
near Hamilton, where he died in 1815. Two of his
grandsons, William D. and David L., sons of David Big-
ham, became residents of Cincinnati; the former died
here November 23, 1866. Several of his sons became
public officers and otherwise prominent men in Butler
county.
(t
CHAPTER X.
CINCINNATI'S THIRD DECADE.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TEN.
This was the year of the third United States census —
the second for Cincinnati. It gave the place two thou-
sand three hundred and twenty inhabitants — an increase
of nearly three hundred and ten percent, and the great-
est in the history of the city in one decade, excepting the
marvelous jump in the sixth decade from forty-six thou-
sand three hundred and thirty-eight in 1840 to one hun-
dred and fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty-eight
in 1850. The white males numbered one thousand two
hundred and twenty-seven, white females one thousand
and thirteen, negroes eighty.j Children under sixteen
years counted one thousand and fifteen; and there were
but one hundred and eighty-four over forty-five years. The
vote of the town was three hundred and eighty-eight; of
the county, two thousand three hundred and twenty.
(The first book relating to the place was published this
year — a unique fact for a village of but twenty-four hun-
dred people and twenty years' growths and one which
seemed to foreshadow the future greatness of the town.
Drake's Notes concerning Cincinnnati is now a very rare
and valuable book^and still reflects honor on the scien-
tific and literary attainments, as well as the enterprise of
the young physician who prepared it. It is /a thoroughly
original work, upon which many Cincinnati books have
since, in part, been builtJ To the fourth and fifth chap-
ters of that little work we owe the notes upon the village
for, this year that follow : ,
(About two-thirds of the houses were in the Bottom,
the rest upon the Hill. No streets were yet paved, and
the alleys were still few. There was no permanent com-
mon, except the Public Landing. The primitive forest
having been thoroughly cleared away, trees had been
planted along some of the sidewalks ; but, says the good
doctor, "they are not sufficiently numerous.) The absurd
clamor against the caterpillar of the Lombardy poplar
(T
caused many trees of that species to be cut down, and at
present the white flowering locust very justly attracts the
most attention.'' (The place contained about three hun-
dred and sixty dwellings, chiefly brick and frame, and
a few of stone. Scarcely any were so constructed as to
afford habitations for families below the ground, and
not many had even porches. There were two cemeteries
— one for the dead of all denominations on the Public
square, between Fourth and Fifth streets, "nearly in the
center of the Hill population,'' and was, says Dr. Drake,
"a convenient receptacle for the town, for strangers, and
for the troops in Fort Washington, previous to the erase-
ment of that garrison." Its area was something less than
half the square. The other cemetery was opened by the
Methodists about 1805, in the northeast quarter of the
town, and also on the Hill. Eight brickyards were in
operation in the western part of the Bottom, on the low-
est part of the town site, near the second bank. That
quarteflabounded in pools, formed by water drained from
almost every part of the village. The butchers' shambles
were on the bank of Deer creek, north and northwest of
town. The tanneries were in the same region!}
([The American emigration to this time had been chiefly
from the States north of Virginia; but representatives were
on the ground from every State then in the Union and
from most of the countries in the west of Europe, espe-
cially from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany.
The inhabitants were generally laborious, most of them
mechanics, and the rest chiefly merchants, professional
men, and teachers. Very few, if any, were so independ
ent in means as not to engage in some business. Most
of the inhabitants were temperate, but some would get
"daily but quietly" drunk, and "no very inconsiderable
number had been known to fall victims to the habit."
Whiskey was most in request by the tipplers, but beer and
cider were the beverages of the more sober. Well water
furnished the plain, summer drink; but for domestic pur-
poses river water was supplied in barrels, and at least
half the inhabitants also drank it during six months of
the year. The use of tobacco by the male inhabitants,
from the age of ten up, was" almost universal. The aver-
age food was similar to that eaten in the middle and
eastern States; fresh meats were consumed in large quan-
tities.^ Beef, fermented wheat bread, and Indian corn
bread were common; but hot bread of any kind was
rarer than in the southern States. Rye flour was almost
unknown as a breadstuff. Fish was not a leading article
of diet, although abundant in the streams.
rThe dress of the people by this time did not vary
greatly from that worn by the corresponding classes in the
middle States^ The ladies, thought the doctor, injured
their health by dressing too thin, and both sexes were
not sufficiently careful to adjust their clothing to the fre-
quent changes of weather. Female health was further
endangered by the balls and dancing parties prevalent
here then, as elsewhere, though not to great excess.
Mineral waters, either natural or artificial, or artificial
baths, were not yet known in the place. Bathing in the
river was practiced by some, but was less regular and
general'than comports with health and cleanliness.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
63
The back part of the bottom, through its entire length,
is described by the doctor as "a hot-bed" of animal and
vegetable putridity. Some spots, but only of small area,
had been artificially raised to make them cultivable. At
the east end of a strip of low ground was a kind of broad,
shallow canal, which conveyed water from all parts of the
town site to. the pits of the brickyards, where "it could
not escape, save as gas or malaria. For its escape in
this manner the heat of our summer sun, increased by
the reflection from the contiguous high bank, is amply
sufficient." The principal febrile diseases, notably ty-
phus affections, which had scourged the people the year
before, especially in December, 1809, were most probably
due to this cause. The "drowned lands" in the valley
of Mill creek were also mentioned as a fertile source of
fever and ague; likewise the tall forest trees that still
overshadowed large spaces between the valley and the
town, the cemetery in the heart of the population, and
the shambles and tanneries when winds blew from the
northwest. Sunstroke was then unknown here, and
death from the inordinate use of well water, which in
those days killed many thirsty ones in Philadelphia, was
very rare in Cincinnati. Few diseases could be traced
directly to the heats of summer.
This year General Lytle, an extensive and enterprising
land operator, removed to Cincinnati from Williams-
burgh, Clermont county. He was, as is well known, the
father of Colonel Robert T. Lytle, who represented the
Cincinnati district in Congress 1833-5, and tne grand-
father of General William H. Lytle, who was killed in the
late war.
On the twenty-sixth of October arrived the families
of L'Hommedieu, Fosdick, and Rogers, after a tedious
journey from Sagg Harbor, on Long Island, having con-
sumed sixty-three days in coming from New York city.
Hon. Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, then a boy in one of
these families, says, in his Pioneer Address of 1874:
Cincinnati was then a village, containing about two thousand inhab-
itants. The houses were mostly frame or log cabins, located generally
on the lower level, below what is now Third street. The principal
street was Main, and was pretty well built upon as high as Sixth and
Seventh streets, the latter being the northern boundary of the village.
It had its Presbyterian meeting-house, a frame building on the square
between Fourth and Fifth, Main and Walnut streets; its graveyard,
court house, jail, and public whipping-post, all on the same square.
Upon the same ground, between the court house and meeting-house, ;
bands of friendly Indians would have war-dances, much to the amuse-
ment of the villagers; after which the hat would be passed around for ,
the benefit, it may be, of the pappooses.
And here I may mention the fact that the pew and pulpit sounding- [
board of that same old pioneer meeting-house, built in the years 1792-3. j
whose pulpit was, in 1810, occupied by that able, fine-looking, hospit- ;
able brave old Kentucky preacher, Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, are still in
use in a small German Lutheran church, on the river road, within the
present corporate limits of the city. :
The village also had its stone Methodist meeting-house, built in 1805-
6, situated on East Fifth street, a little west of Eastern row, then the ;
eastern boundary of the village, now Broadway. It also had its post
office, on the corner of Lawrence and Front streets, and its David Em-
bree brewery, on the river bank, below Race street.
G EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND ELEVEN. j
"his year the residents of this region, and indeed all ,
..ough the western country, were much in alarm through 1
fear of the renewal of Indian depredations and hostili- :
ities ; which fear, happily, was not realized in any part of
the Miami valley^ After the battle of Tippecanoe, in
November, the Fourth regiment of United States infan-
try, commanded by Colonel Boyd, an uncle of Judge
Bellamy Storer, which had marched away from Fort
Washington to the campaign, returned flushed with vic-
tory, and was received with great acclamation by the
people of Cincinnati. The next June, we may mention
here, when it moved northward to join the army under
General Hull, the military companies of the city met it
as it landed after crossing from Newport Barracks, and
acted as an escort of honor on the march up Main street.
From the northeast to the northwest intersection of this
street with Fifth, a triumphal arch had been erected,
bearing in large letters the inscription, "To the Heroes
of Tippecanoe." Three hundred soldiers, all that re-
mained of this gallant regiment from the inroads of dis-
ease and the casualties of service, passed under the arch.
One soldier marching in disgrace as a prisoner, for deser-
tion or cowardice, was compelled to go around the arch,
as a further stamp of .ignominy. Upon reaching its first
camp north of Cincinnati, about five miles out, the regi-
ment was bountifully supplied with provisions from the
city, as gifts of its citizens. Upon arriving at Urbana,
where Hull's army was then encamped, it was honored
with another arch, inscribed: "Tippecanoe — The Eagle
— Glory." Lieutenant Colonel Miller, now command-
ing the regiment, was the hero of the celebrated reply at
the battle of Chippewa, to the question of General Scott;
"Can you take that battery?" "I will try, sir" — words
which, except the last, were worn upon the buttons of
the-regimental uniform.
/In August of this year, the first in the long and costly
listof Cincinnati breweries was established on the river
bank, at the foot of Race street, by Mr. David Embree.
On the twenty-seventh of the same month the hearts of
the people were made glad, and they were finally relieved
from Indian alarms, by the notification of Colonel John-
ston that he had made peace with all the savage tribes
on the frontier./ Mourning came September 24th
when Major Zjegler, the gallant old Prussian sol-
dier, and the first of Cincinnati's executive officers, died.
He was buried with military honors.* The Farmers' &
Mechanics' bank, of Cincinnati, was established this year,
at a public meeting held October 12th. Nicholas Long-
worth was secretary of the commissioners of the bank.
* The descendants of Major Ziegler, and all who revere the memory
of the gallant soldier, will be interested in the following extract from
the military journal of Major Denny, a fellow officer of the First regi-
ment of the army :
"22d. [February, 1789.] Married, this evening, Captain David
Ziegler, of the First legiment, to Miss Sheffield, only single daughter
of Mrs. Sheffield, of Campus Martius, city of Marietta. On this oc-
casion I played the captain's aid, and at his request the memorandums
made. I exhibited a character not more awkward than strange at the
celebration of Captain Ziegler's nuptials, the first of the kind I had
been a witness to."
This was at Fort Harmar, near Marietta. Captain Ziegler was sta-
tioned with his company at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great
Miami, more than two years before Losantiville was founded. Major
Denny elsewhere records a high compliment to Ziegler's soldiership
and the bearing of his company— "always first in point of discipline
and appearance. "
><
64
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
t The first steamboat ever seen in Cincinnati, and the
first built on western waters, the New Orleans, arrived on
the twenty-seventh of October, naturally exciting great
curiosity.) She is noted at the time as actually making
thirteen-niiles in two hours, and against the current at
that! Liberty Hall of October 30, 181 1, gives a still
better account of it. After noticing the departure, on
the previous Sabbath, of two large barges rigged as
sloops and owned in Cincinnati, for New Orleans, the
editor includes this in his "ship news" :
Same day. — The STEAMBOAT, lately built at Pittsburgh, passed this
town at five o'clock in the afternoon, in fine stile, going at the rate of
about ten or twelve miles an hour.
Only these three lines — no more — to chronicle the
greatest commercial event that ever occurred at Cincin-
cinnati!
Mr. William Robson, who landed here in June, 1818,
and was long at the head of the coppersmith and brass-
founding business in Cincinnati, was originally a ship
carpenter by trade, and as such worked upon the Cler-
mont, Fulton's first steamboat upon the Hudson. His
service upon this was so satisfactory that when the New
York company determined to build a steamer for the
western waters, in 181 1, he was sent to Pittsburgh to su-
perintend its construction. Thus closely is Cincinnati
related to the introduction of steam navigation in the
great west. -■ •■ '■• _
Mr. Charles Joseph Latrobe, of the celebrated family
of engineers, in the first volume of his Rambler in
North America, (1832-33), has left an exceedingly read-
able and intelligent account of this first voyage of the
New Orleans, which is worth extracting in full:
Circumstances gave me the opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the particulars of the very first voyage of a steamer in the west;
and their extraordinary character will be my apology to you for filling
a page of this sheet with the following brief relation :
The complete success attending the experiments in steam naviga-
tion made on the Hudson and the adjoining waters previous to the year
1809, turned the attention of the principal projectors to the idea of its
application on the western rivers; and in the month of April of that
year, Mr. Roosevelt, of New York, pursuant to an agreement with
Chancellor Livingston and Mr. Fulton, visited those rivers, with the
purpose of forming an opinion whether they admitted of steam navi-
gation or not. At this time two boats, the North River and the Cler-
mont, were running on the Hudson. Mr. Roosevelt surveyed the riv-
ers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and, as his report was favorable, it
was decided to build a boat at the former town. This was done under
his direction, and in the course of i8n the first boat was launched on
the waters of the Ohio. It was called the "New Orleans," and intended
to ply between Natchez, in the State of Mississippi, and the city whose
name it bore. In October it left Pittsburgh for its experimental voy-
age. On this occasion no freight or passengers were taken, the object
being merely to bring the boat to her station. Mr. Roosevelt, his
young wife and family, a Mr. Baker, the engineer, Andrew Jack, the
pilot, and six hands, with a few domestics, formed the whole burden.
There were no woodyards at that time, and constant delays were una-
voidable. When, as related, Mr. Roosevelt had gone down the river
to reconnoitre, he had discovered two beds of coal, about one hundred
and twenty miles below the rapids at Louisville, and now took tools to
work them, intending to load the vessel with the coal and to employ it
as fuel, instead of constantly detaining the boat while wood was pro-
cured from the banks.
Late at night, on the fourth day after quitting Pittsburgh, they ar-
rived in safety at Louisville, having been but seventy hours descending
upwards of seven hundred miles. The novel appearance of the vessel,
and the fearful rapidity with which it made its passage over the broad
reaches of the river, excited a mixture of terror and surprise among
many of the settlers on the banks, whom the rumor ]of such an inven-
tion had never reached; and it is related that on the unexpected arrival
of the boat before Louisville, in the course of a fine, still, moonlight
night, the extraordinary sound which filled the air, as the pent-up
steam was suffered to escape from the valve on rounding-to, produced
a general alarm, and the multitudes in the town rose from their beds to
ascertain the cause. I have heard that the general impression among
the good Kentuckians was that the comet had fallen into the Ohio ;
but this does not rest upon the same foundation as the other facts
which I lay before you, and which I may at once say I had directly from
the lips of the parties themselves. The small depth of water in the rap-
ids prevented the boat from pursuing her voyage immediately, and
during the consequent detention of three weeks in the upper part of the
Ohio, several trips were successfully made between Louisville and Cin-
cinnati. In fine, the waters rose, and in the course of the last week in
November the voyage was resumed, the depth of water barely admit-
ting their passage.
When they arrived about five miles above the Yellow Banks they
moored the boat opposite to the first vein of coal, which was on the
Indiana side, and had been purchased in the interim of the State gov-
ernment. They found a large quantity already quarried to their hand
and conveyed to the shore by depredators, who had not found means to
carry it off; and with this they commenced loading the boat. While
thus engaged, our voyagers were accosted in great alarm by the squat-
ters of the neighborhood, who inquired if they had not heard strange
noises on the river and in the woods in the course of the preceding
day, and perceived the shores shake, insisting that they had repeatedly
felt the earth tremble.
Hitherto nothing extraordinary had been perceived. The following
day they pursued their monotonous voyage in those vast solitudes. The
weather was ^observed to be oppressively hot ; the air misty, still, and
dull ; and though the sun was visible, like a glowing ball of copper, his
rays hardly shed more than a mournful twilight on the surface of
.the water. Evening drew nigh, and with it some indications of what
w'as passing, around them became evident. And as they sat on deck,
"they 'ever and anon heard a rushing sound and violent splash, and saw
large. portions of the shore tearing away from the land and falling into
-tlie river. " It was," as my informant said, "an awful day ; so still that
you could have heard a pin drop on the deck." They spoke little, for
every one on board appeared thunderstruck. The comet had disap-
peared about this time, which circumstance was noticed with awe by
the crew.
The second day after their leaving the Yellow Banks, the sun rose
over the forest the same ball of fire, and the air was thick, dull, and
oppressive as before. The portentous signs of this terrible natural Con-
vulsion continued and increased. The pilot, alarmed and confused,
affirmed that he was lost, as he found the channel everywhere altered;
and where he had hitherto known deep water, there lay numberless
trees with their roots upwards. The trees were seen waving and nod-
ding on the bank, without a wind; but the adventurers had no choice
but to continue their route. Towards evening they found themselves
at a loss for a place of shelter. They had usually brought to under the
shore, but everywhere they saw the high banks disappearing, over-
whelming many a flat-boat and raft, from which the owners had landed
and made their escape. A large island in mid-channel, which was
selected by the pilot as the better alternative, was sought for in vain,
having disappeared entirely. Thus, in doubt and terror, they proceeded
hour after hour till dark, when they found a small island, and rounded
to, mooring themselves to the foot of it. Here they lay, keeping watch
on deck during the long autumnal night, listening to the sound of the
waters which roared and gurgled horribly around them, and hearing
from time to time the rushing earth slide from the shore, and the com-
motion as the falling mass of earth and trees was swallowed up by the
river. The mother of the party, a delicate-female, who had just been
confined on board as they lay off Louisville, was frequently awakened
from her restless slumber by the jar given to the furniture and loose
articles in the cabin, as, several times in the course of the night, the
shock of the passing earthquake was communicated from the island to
the bows of the vessel. It was a long night, but morning dawned and
showed them that they were near the mouth of the Ohio. The shores
and the channel were now equally unrecognizable; everything seemed
changed. About noon that day they reached the small town of New
Madrid, on the right bank of the Mississippi. Here they found the in-
habitants in the greatest distress and consternation; part of the popu-
lation had fled in terror to the higher grounds; others prayed to be
taken on board, as the earth was opening in fissures on every side, and
their houses hourly falling around them.
Proceeding thence, they found the Mississippi, at all times a fearful
Znjf-Tjy jLEFrt''-
^y^o&r' nsf/r/.?2s
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
65
stream, now unusually swollen, turbid and full of trees; and, after many
days of great danger, though they felt and perceived no more of the
earthquakes, they reached their destination at Natchez, at the close of
the first week in January, i8iz, to the great astonishment of all, the
escape of the boat having been considered an impossibility.
At that time you floated for three or four hundred miles on the rivers,
without seeing a human habitation.
Such was the voyage of the first steamer.
(f The shocks of earthquake were felt at Cincinnati al-
most as severely as at some points in the Mississippi val-
ley. The first shock occurred at 2:24 A. M., on the
morning of the sixteenth of December. The motion
was a quick oscillation or rocking, continuing six or seven
minutes, and accompanied, as some averred, by a rush-
ing or rumbling noise. Some mischief was done to
brick-walled houses and to chimneys, and many persons
were afflicted by it with vertigo or nausea. A brief but
graphic picture of the earthquake, as it affected this
place, is given by Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his biography
of his brother-in-law, Dr. Drake. Mr. Mansfield, it
should be remarked, had himself personal recollections of
this event:
In the morning of the sixteenth of December, 181.1, the inhabitants
of the Miami country, and especially of Cincinnati and its neighbor-
hood, were awoke from a sound sleep, at about three o'clock, by a
shaking of their houses, and by rumbling noises which sounded like
distant thunder. To each one the phenomenon was alike unknown
and awful. In the country the animals soon began to shriek, and all
Nature seemed to feel the shock of a common evil and the dread of a
common danger. The most intelligent persons soon discovered it to be
an earthquake; but this discovery by no means allayed the alarm. On
the contrary, as earthquakes were never known before in this region,
there was nothing to reason upon, and full scope was left for the im-
agination. Pictures of the earth opening to devour the inhabitants, of
burning lava bursting forth, of yawning gulfs, and to many of a general
destruction and a general doom, rose to the visions of the affrighted
people, filling them with fears and anxieties.
The shock of the sixteenth of December was so violent that it shook
down the chimneys of several houses. In the midst of the general
alarm there was some amusement; and the buoyant spirits of young
and happy people will often extract something pleasant, even from the
most fearful circumstances. Mrs. Willis's Columbian inn was a sort of
fashionable hotel, where many of the gay people of the town boarded.
I remember to have heard a great deal of laughter at the odd and
curious appearance and grouping of maids and madams, bachelors and
husbands, as they rushed into the street, tumultuous, in midnight
drapery. But this cheerfulness did not last long; for the earthquakes
continued during the winter, and although they were better understood,
they were not the less dreaded. This common fear, and indeed the
common necessity 'of being prepared for any event, had a great influ-
ence in destroying the artificiality of society and bringing friends and
neighbors together. Many families had their valuables carefully packed
up, that they might take a rapid flight, in case of the destruction of
their houses or of chasms in the earth, which would render their de-
parture necessary. As the shocks of an earthquake were generally pre-
ceded by signs of their approach, such as rumbling sounds and a pe-
culiar atmosphere, families would often sit up late at night, in dread of
a night shock, and neighbors and friends would assemble together to
make the time pass more pleasantly, especially to the young, by cheer-
ful conversation. In this manner social intercourse and friendly feeling
were promoted, and, as in other afflictions of Providence, good was
still educed from evil.
The scientific observations and explanations upon this (in the valley
of the Ohio) most extraordinary phenomenon are recorded by Dr.
Drake in the Appendix to the Picture of Cincinnati. Most careful
notes of the duration and deviation of the shocks were made by Col-
onel Mansfield, at Bates's place. A carefully prepared pendulum, hung
in the parlor window of his house, never ceased its vibrations from
December to the following May; and several shocks occurred during
the remainder of the year 1812.
The original seat of this shaking of the earth seems to have been near
New Madrid, on the Mississippi, a point four hundred miles, in a direct
line, from Cincinnati. There the convulsion was terrific. Boats on the
S
river were thrown into a boiling whirpool, and seemed for a time to be
engulfed in an endless vortex. The banks of the river were rent, the
earth was opened, and the waters, rushing in, formed lakes for miles,
where the land was dry before. Explosions from beneath took place,
and fossils buried in the alluvium of ages were forced to the surface.
The power of the original cause may be estimated by the fact of such
violent effects at Cincinnati, four hundred miles distant, and that the
movements, as of a lever, of this central force, were felt almost through-
out North America, diminishing in intensity in the inverse ratio of the
distance. \
The hardest shock here occurred on the second of
February following, throwing down chimneys and doing
other mischief. Slight shocks were felt from time to
time for nearly two years, the last being observed Decem-
ber 12, 1 8 13. They are said to have been much severer
in the valley of the Ohio than on the uplands, where, in
many places, the convulsion of the earth was scarcely
felt. Twenty miles from Cincinnati, and on the ridges of
Kentucky, it is recorded there were whole families who
slept through the first shock without being awakened.
A literary curiosity appeared this year — and seems to
have been published for some years before, as this is No.
6 — in the shape of the Cincinnati Almanac, the first
calendar published west of the Alleghanies. It was /
printed by Rev. John W. Browne, and prepared by
"Robert Stubbs, Philom.," an English clergyman, who
came to this region in 1800 and took charge of the New-
port Academyi He was quite noted locally as a scholar,
and used to excite great wonderment in the minds of the
people as he paced to and fro before his front door, recit-
ing scraps of Greek and Latin. Colonel James Taylor,
of Newport, is reputed to be the sole surviving member
of his school.
This year Mr. John Melish, another Englishman
abroad, makes Cincinnati a visit, and records some
shrewd observations in manufactures here, which will be
found hereafter, in our chapter on that subject.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE.
This was the great historic year which opened the last
war with Great Britain. The west was considerably dis-
turbed by the movements of the British and Indians and
the dread of approaching hostilities, for months before the
war formally opened. It was determined by the authori-
ties to form an army of Ohio troops on the northwest
frontier, and Hamilton, Butler, Warren, and Clermont
counties were called upon for one battalion, which was
promptly raised, and marched to the rendezvous at
Camp Meigs, near Dayton. General Gano was promi-
nent in these early movements, as afterwards in the war;
and General Findlay, although a major-general in the
militia, consented to command a regiment as colonel.
The Governor of the State issued the following:
A CALL ON THE PATRIOTISM OF CINCINNATI.
The situation of our country has compelled the Government to resort
to precautionary measures of defence. In obedience to its call, 400
men have abandoned the comforts of domestic life and are here assem-
bled in camp, at the distance of some hundred miles from home, pre-
pared to protect our frontier from the awful effects of savage and of
civilized warfare. But the unprecedented celerity with which they
have moved precluded the possibility of properly equipping them.
Many, very many of them, are destitute of blankets, and without those
indispensable articles it will be impossible for them to move to their
point of destination. Citizens of Cincinnati! this appeal is made to
you. Let each family furnish one or more blankets, and the requisite
66
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
number will be easily completed. It is not requested as a boon: the
moment your blankets are delivered you shall receive the full value in
money— they are not to be had at the stores. The season of the year is
approaching when each family may, without inconvenience, part with
one. Mothers! Sisters! Wives! — Recollect that the men in whose favor
this appeal is made, have connections as near and dear as any which
can bind you to life. These they have voluntarily abandoned, trusting
that the integrity and patriotism of their fellow-citizens will supply every
requisite for themselves and their families, and trusting that the same
spirit which enabled their fathers to achieve their independence will
enable theirsons to defend it. To-morrow arrangements will be made
for their reception, and the price paid.
R. J. MEIGS, Governor of Ohio.
Cincinnati, April 30, 1812.
The appeal was promptly and generously responded
to, and the brave boys in camp slept warm during the
cool nights of spring.
Most of the prominent names or events connected
with the war, so far as tradition or the records have
handed them down, have been recorded in Part L, chap-
ter n, of this book. It is to be regretted that more of
the interior history of the struggle, and especially the
rolls of the regiments recruited, are not now accessible to
the/historian.
(fclncinnati and Newport presented many stirring scenes
duVing the war. A recruiting station was maintained in
each place, and the strains of martial music soon became!
familiar sounds. Business at first fell off, through the
excitement of volunteering and drafting and the equip-
ment of the troops; but recovered as the people became
accustomed to it and the war created new demands^
Mr. L'Hommedieu says, in his Pioneer Address April J,
1874:
Everything wore a military aspect. United States troops from the
Newport barracks were marched under arms, on Sunday, to the pio-
neer Presbyterian meeting-house, to hear the stirring words of our good
and brave Dr. Wilson. Kentucky sent her thousands of volunteers on
their march to join the Army of the North (soon to be commanded by
General Harrison), to give battle to the British and their savage allies.
It was a glorious sight to see these brave men pass up Main street; and
what glory they earned in the second war for independence.
On the twentieth of June Liberty Hall published the
declaration of war, and patriotism was immediately at
fever heat. The citizens assembled, passed resolutions
of approval, fired cannon, and engaged in other demon-
stations. Per contra, intense indignation was manifested
when, on the eighth of September, news was received of
General Hull's outrageous surrender at Detroit.
Lieutenant Hugh Moore conducted the recruiting
station here. Many volunteers were already in the field
from Hamilton county, marching against the British and
Indians at the northward, while a company of home
guards was organized among the older men of Cincin-
nati and commanded by General William Lytle. The
troops and the cause were fitly remembered in the toasts
at the celebration of Independence day this year.
Among them were these: "The Northwestern Army:
Our brethren and fellow-citizens now on the frontier —
'Nor do they sigh ingloriously to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the battle burn.'
May they have pleasant paths and unclouded spirit."
General Harrison was responsible for a toast which
would certainly have been withheld, if he could have
forecast the near future: "General Hull and his Army
— They have passed that scene immortalized by the vic-
tory of Wayne; the spirit of that hero will animate them
to deeds like his, and teach them the lesson of victory
or death."
Cincinnati had at least two little notices" abroad this
year — the one from Alcedo ; or a Geographical and His-
torical Dictionary of America and the West Indies — an
English work by G. A. Thompson, Esq.; and the other
from the Topographical Description of Ohio, Indiana
Territory and Louisiana, "by a late officer of the army,"
which is accompanied by an engraving of the best-known
view of early Cincinnati, that taken by Lieutenant Jervis
Cutler, from Newport, in 1810:
Cincinnati, a flourishing town in the territory of the United States
northwest of the Ohio, and the present seat of government. It stands
on the north bank of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Licking river,
two miles and a half southwest of Fort Washington [!] and about eight
miles west of Columbia. Both these towns lie between Great and Lit-
tle Miami rivers. Cincinnati contains about two hundred houses, and
is eighty-two miles north by east of Frankfort; ninety northwest of Lex-
ington, and seven hundred and seventy-nine west by south of Philadel-
phia. Latitude thirty-eight degrees forty-two minutes north. Longi-
tude eighty-four degrees eleven minutes west.
Mr. Cutler's Topographical Description is mainly use-
ful as introducing another and better notice, from a well
known authority of the olden time. The writer says:
Returning back to the Ohio, the first town below Columbia is Cin-
cinnati, five miles distant. In the Ohio Navigator a concise and correct
description is given of this town:
'/[Cincinnati is handsomely situated on a first and second bank of
the \)hio, opposite Licking river. It is a flourishing town, has a rich,
level, and well settled country around it. It contains about four hun-
dred dwellings, an elegant court house, jail, three market houses, a
land office for the sale of Congress lands, two printing offices, issuing
weekly gazettes, thirty mercantile stores, and the various branches of
mechanism are carried on with spirit. Industry of every kind being
duly encouraged by the citizens, Cincinnati is likely to become a consid,
erable manufacturing place^ It is eighty-two miles north by east from
Frankfort, and about three hundred and eighty by land south-south-
west from Pittsburgh, north latitude thirty-nine degrees, five minutes,
fifty-four seconds, according to Mr~Ellicot, and west longitude eighty-
five degrees, forty-four minutes. [ It is the principal town in what is
called Symmes' Purchase, and isShe seat of justice for what is called
Hamilton county, Ohio.) It has a bank issuing notes under the author-
ity of the State, called the Miami Exporting company. /The healthi-
ness and salubrity of the climate; the levelness and luxuriance of the
soil; the purity and excellence of the waters, added to the blessings
attendant on the judicious administration of mild and equitable laws;
the great security in the land titles; all seem to centre in a favorable
point of expectation — that Cincinnati and the country around it
must one day become rich and very populous, equal, perhaps, if not
superior to any other place of an interior position in the United States.}
The site of Fort Washington is near the centre of the town. It was a
principal frontier post: it is now laid out in town lots.
(^l considerable trade is carried on between Cincinnati and New
Orleans) in keel-boats, which return laden with foreign goods. The
passage of a boat of forty tons down to New Oileans is computed at.
about twenty-five, and its return to Cincinnati at about sixty-five days.))
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN.
The population of the village this year is estimated to
have reached four thousand.
The death of the Rev. John W. Browne, a prominent
editor in the early days of local journalism, occurred
this year. Arrived, Thomas Pierce, anon>mous author 1/
of the amusing satires entitled Horace in Cincinnati, 1
and also writer of Hesperia, a prize poem. He was a
merchant till 1822, then studied medicine, but resumed
merchandising, and died here in 1850.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
67
February 2d, news of Winchester's defeat on the river
Raisin, in Michigan, is received.
September 9th, four thousand Kentucky volunteers
pass through town, on their way to join the northern
army. On the twenty-first the glad news comes of Perry's
great naval victory at Put-in Bay.
James W. Gazlay came to the village this year, and
opened a law office on Main street, between Sixth and
Seventh — then quite out of the business quarter.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN.
This year, February 26, the people of the county and
of the State sustained the loss of the hero of the Miami
Purchase, Judge John Cleves Symmes. He died in
Cincinnati, between which and North Bend he alternated
his residence. The following notice was issued to his
friends and the general community:
The citizens of Cincinnati are invited to attend the funeral of the
Hon. John Cleves Symmes, at the dwelling of Gen. Harrison in Front
street, to-morrow at 10 o'clock A. M., from whence a procession will be
formed to the landing of Mr. Joel Williams, where the body will be
embarked for North Bend, selected by the Judge as the place of his
interment. Such of his friends as can make it convenient to attend
his remains to that place can be accommodated on board the boat
which conveys them.
Cincinnati, February 26, 1814.
Sufficient notice of the life and public services of this
remarkable man has been made in chapter V of the first
division of this book. We are in addition able to present
here a document of great interest, which we are assured
has never before been in print :
WILL OF JOHN CLEVES SYMMES.
The last will and testament of John Cleves Symmes. In the name of
God, amen. I, John Cleves Symmes, of North Bend, in the county of
Hamilton and State of Ohio, being grievously afflicted with a cancer in
my under lip, chin, and throat, which will undoubtedly shortly put an
end to my life, while as yet I remain of sound mind and memory, do
think it my duty to make and publish this my last will and testament,
not so much for the disposition of the small personal property which I
shall possess at my Death, as the constitution and laws of the State of
Ohio anticipates the necessity of my making will in that respect, my
will being the same with the law quo ad goods, chattels, rights, and
credits; but the circumstance which renders it necessary that I should
make and publish this my last will and testament is to authorize my ex-
ecutors hereinafter named, and the survivor of them, to sell and dis-
pose of and make title to the purchasers of those few fragments of
land which I have never sold, and which as yet has not been torn from
me under color of law, as by the laws of the State administrators can-
not dispose of the real estate of their intestate without a rule of court
authorizing them so to do. Therefore I, the said John Cleves Symmes,
do hereby declare and appoint my worthy son-in-law William Henry
Harrison, Esquire, and my beloved grandson John Cleves Short, Es-
quire, and the survivor of them, my true and lawful executors to this
my last will and testament, hereby giving unto them and the survivor
of them full power and lawful authority to sell all or any part of my
lands and real estate, wherever any part or parcel thereof may be found
or discovered within the said State of Ohio, and proceeds or monies
arising from such sales equally to divide between them for their reward,
in compensation for their trouble and services; first, however, paying
thereout for all deficiencies in contents or number of acres that may be
found wanting in the several tracts of land which I have heretofore sold
and been paid for, but which on a re-survey may have been deeded by
me for a greater number of acres than there really is in the tract. On
the other hand, many sections, quarter sections, fractions of sections,
tracts and parcels of land, by me heretofore deeded for a given number
of acres, strict measure, on a re-survey will appear to be larger, and
contains a surplusage of land over and above the quantity of land sold
or ever paid for. It is therefore my will and desire that my executors
and the survivor of them seek after and enquire out these surplus lands
by the assistance of the county surveyor, and that my executors dispose
of such surplus lands at the same price with which they remunerate
those whose deeds from me call for more land than is embraced within
the limits or boundaries of my deeds to them, And my further will
. and request is, and I do hereby enjoin upon my said executors and the
survivor of them, hereby investing in them and the survivors of them
all lawful authority and full power for the purpose, to carry [out] all my
special contracts with individual persons into full effect and final close,
according to the tenor of each respective contract; provided, however,
that the other party named in each several contract faithfully fulfill the
conditions on their part stipulated to be performed, which conditions
will appear on having recourse to their respective contracts. And my
will is that my said executors have and possess, and I hereby give unto
them, and the survivor of them, all further necessary and usual powers
to sue for and collect all or any part of my dues and debts, whether
owing to me on bond, on note, or book debt; and also to pay all such
debts as I justly owe; but there are some unjust claims against me
founded in the deepest conspiracy, fraud and perjuries.
(S hope I need make no apology to my children and grandchildren for
nothaving so much property to leave to them as might have been ex-
pected from the earnings of a long, industrious, frugal, and adventur-
ous life, when they recollect the undue methods taken, as well by the
Government of the United States as by many individual private char-
acters, to make sacrifice of my hardly earned property at the shrine of
their avarice. It has been my particular lot to be treated with the
blackest, blackest ingratitude, by some who now laugh at my calamity,
but who would at this day have been toiling in poverty, had not my en-
terprise to this country, my benevolence, or the property which they
have plundered from me, have made them rich. How dark and mys-
terious are the ways of Heavenj) I shall add nothing further save that it
is my particular desire to be buried m the graveyard at North Bend,
where the last twenty.five years of my life have been chiefly spent.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand to this, my last
will and testament, on the thirty-first day of December, in the year
eighteen hundred and thirteen.
John Cleves Symmes. [Seal]
Subscribed and sealed in presence of
James Findlay,
Geo. P. Toekence,
Joseph Perry.
Thos. Sloo, Junr,
The election for corporation officers was held this year
April 4th, at John Wingate's tavern. Only one hundred
and forty-one votes were cast, though the town is to have
had a vote of four hundred and eleven in 1814. Samuel
W. Davis was chosen president of the select council;
Jacob Brown, William Corry, Samuel Stitt, Davis Em-
bree, John S. Wallace, William Irwin, and Jacob
Wheeler, members of the council; Griffin Yeatman, re-
corder; John Mahard, assessor; Jacob Chambers, mar-
shal and collector.
Brilliant auroras were observed in the sky April 19th
and September nth.
On the fifth of April Jeremiah Neave & Son opened a
commission warehouse on Main street.
October 2 2d the first Bible society in the Miami coun-
try is started here.
In the fall or early winter of 1814, Cincinnati lost the
office of surveyor general of public lands in the north-
west, by its removal to Chillicothe, under the ap-
pointment of ex-Governor Tiffin as surveyor general,
and the late incumbent of that office, Josiah Meigs, to
Dr. Tiffin's place as commissioner of the general land
office. This post had been created by act of Congress
April 25, 1812, and Governor Tiffin appointed by Presi-
dent Madison as the first commissioner. In the autumn
of 1814 he conceived a strong desire to return to the
west, and wrote to Mr. Meigs proposing an exchange of
offices. He readily consenting, the matter was arranged
1 without difficulty with the President, the Senate con-
68
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
firmed the new nominations, and the ex-governor came
home to Chillicothe, removing the surveyor general's of-
fice thither, while Mr. Meigs removed his residence tem-
porarily to Washington, and assumed charge of the gen-
eral land office — a post which he held for some years.
The fine old Lytle house, at No. 66 Lawrence street,
East End, was erected this year by General Lytle, and
has been continuously occupied by the family. It is by
far the oldest building of its grade in the city. Mr. Jo-
seph Jones, who worked upon it in 1814, then a full-
grown man, is still living in Cincinnati.
David K. Este, a young lawyer, afterwards an eminent
judge, settled in the city.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN.
The preparation of another book by Dr. Drake — the
Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and
the Miami Country — was the local literary event of the
year. It enables the reader to form a lull and no doubt
accurate conception of the now large and rapidly growing
town, in nearly all respects. The preface modestly de-
scribes the work as "an account of a village in the woods;"
but it is a remarkable and valuable account. For the
first time to a book on Cincinnati, a map is prefixed;
which gives us the opportunity to introduce here Mr.
Charles Cist's article, prepared thirty years afterwards and
published in his Miscellany, on
EARLY MAPS OF CINCINNATI.
Streets. — West of the section line separating section twenty-four
from the west of the city, there was not a street laid out at the date of
1815. That line followed a due north course from a point at the river
Ohio, about half-way between Mill and Smith streets, crossing Fifth
street just east of the mound which lately stood there, and Western
row about two hundred yards south of the corporation line. Plum ;
Race, and Walnut streets extended no farther north than Seventh
street, and Sycamore was not opened beyond the present line of the
Miami canal. From Walnut street west as far as Western row, not a.
street was opened north of Seventh street north of the canal already re-
ferred to. It was the same case with respect to Broadway from Fifth
street to the corporation line in the same direction. Court street, west
of Main, was called St. Clair street, and Ninth street, its whole length
at that time, was laid out as Wayne street. Eighth street, east of
Main, was called New Market street.
Public Buildings.. — Of churches there were only — the Presbyterian
church which preceded the present building, on Main street ; the Meth-
odist church on Fifth, where the Wesley chapel has since been built ; a
Baptist church on Sixth street, west of Walnut, on the site of what is
now a German church, corner of Lodge street ; aud the Friends' frame
meeting-house on Fifth, below Western row. Of all these the last only
remains on its original site, the Presbyterian church having been re-
moved to Vine, below Fifth, where it still stands under the name of
Burke's church, and the others having been since removed to make way
for their successors. The site of the present Cincinnati college, on
Walnut street, at that date was occupied by the Lancaster seminary.
Young as was the place, it furnished business for three banks. The
Bank of Cincinnati was on Main, west side, and north of Fifth street ;
the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank on Main, west side, between Front
and Second streets ; and the Miami Exporting company on the spot
now [1844] occupied by W. G. Breese's store, facing the Public Landing.
These, with the court house and jail, which stand now where they then
stood, made up the public buildings for 1815. The brewery, corner of
Symmes and Pike streets ; another, corner of Race and Water streets,
immediately east of Deer creek ; Gulick's sugar refinery on Arch street ;
a glass-house at the foot of Smith street ; a steam saw-mill at the mouth
of Mill street ; and the great steam mill on the river bank, half-way be-
tween Ludlow street and Broadway, constituted in 1815 the entire man-
ufactories of the place.
Markets. — Besides lower market, which occupied the block from
Main to Sycamore, as well as that from Sycamore to Broadway, in the
street of that name, and upper market, which stood on Fifth, between
Main and Walnut streets, there was ground vacated for markets, which,
having been found unsuitable for the purpose, was never occupied for
that use. One of these embraces the front of Sycamore street on both
sides, from a short distance north of Seventh to the corner of Ninth
street. Another is on McFarland street, west of Elm, forming a square
of two hundred feet in the centre of the block. A slight examination of
these places where the dwellings have been built back from the line of
the respective streets, will point out at once the space dedicated for this
purpose.
The blocks marked upon this map as fully occupied or
settled at this time were those between Front, Water, and
the river, Main and Plum ; south of East Front, between
Broadway and Ludlow; between Second and Front, from
Vine to Ludlow, and Lawrence to Pike ; between Second
and Third, from Main to Sycamore, and Broadway to
Ludlow; between Third and Fourth, Main and Sycamore,
one block;' between Fourth and Fifth, from Plum to
Sycamore; between Fifth and Sixth, Walnut to Main
only; between Sixth and Northern row, and between
Northern row and New Market (Eighth street), only
Sycamore to Broadway; also eleven small blocks west of
Western row, on Longworth, London, Kemble, Rich-
mond, and Catherine streets. The blocks adjacent
to those described were mostly one-eighth to three-
fourths occupied; but there were still some magnificent
distances in the heart of the town, the block between
Second and Third, Race and Vine, for example, being
still wjTOilyun^ccupied.
Drake is jiow able to remark:
FAjm Newpojt-6r Covington [then just laid out |, the appearance of
the town is beantiful ; and at a future period, when the streets shall be
graduated from the Hill to the river shore, promises to become magnifi-
cent.
it Preparations were making, he says, for the paving of
Main street, frum the tirer to Fourth, and the next year
it would "no doubt be followed by a general improve-
ment of the town in this respect.") It had become a
question where the drainage from the town should be
made to enter the river, and^the doctor thought that
probably all gutters west of Broadway would be dis-
charged into a common sewer at Second street, "along
which in an open channel the water now runs. '*) t It|fwas
proposed to throw up a levee along the border of the
town plat, six feet high and two hundred yards long) but,
says the doctor, "no measures, have yet been taken to ef-
fect this important object." (Other improvements, pro-
jected] at least, in the fertile and active brain of Dr.
Drake,(were a bridge across the Ohio, a steam ferry, a
new and permanent bridge across the mouth of Deer
creek) the restoration of the wooden bridge across Mill
creek, near its confluence with the Ohio,(a great road via
Dayton toward the sources of the Miamis, an improved
road to Columbia, andjnote it for 1815/a canal, to con-
nect the Great Miami with the Maumee, and a canal
Irom Hamilton to Cincinnati) a route for which is traced
upon his map, and is substantially that, which the Miami
canal afterwards followed. No wonder the enterprising
writer was now able to register his opinion that "Cincin-
nati is to be the future metropolis of the Ohio.
( It is the permanent mart and trading capital
of a-tect whose area equals the cultivated part of New
;!. , . ■•f.-fj aAM~ )
REFERENCES.
Steam Mill.
Brewery,
o Ferries.
4 Brewery.
5 Potash Factory .
6 Presbyterian Choroh.
7 Court House.
8 JsiL
9 Methodist Church.
10 Lanoaster Seminary.
11 Sugar Refinery .
12 Bank of Cincinnati.
13 Bank— Miami Exporting Co.
14 Bank— Fanners & Mechanics.
15 Friends' Meeting House. '
16 Remains of Ancient Works . /
IT Presbyterian Bnrytng Ground
IB Site of Old Fort Washington'.
19 Glass House.
20 Steam Saw Mill.
21 Baptist Church.
22 W. Market.
23 Market.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
69
\U'
V
Hampshire, New Jersey, or Maryland; surpasses the
State of Connecticut, and doubles the States of Rhode
Island and Delaware taken together; with a greater quan-
tity of fertile and productive soil than the whole com-
bined."
The population of the town,) in July of this year,(was
carefully estimated at six thousand — an increase of fifty
per cent, in two years. The average was nearly ten per-
sons to a dwelling. \ And, says the doctor, /no part of
its unexampled progress in population and improvement
can be ascribed to political aids; . . . but
the whole has resulted from such natural and commer-
cial advantages as cannot easily be transformed or de-
stroyed." J
(There were not far from one thousand and seventy
houses in the nlace^) exclusive of kitchens, smoke-houses,
and stables. (Over twenty were of stone, two hundred
and fifty brick, about eight hundred wood. Only six
hundred contained families; the rest were public or busi-
ness houses.) (The great disproportion of frame houses
was due to the demand created by rapid immigration, as
they could be so speedily built. The dwellings were gen-
erally two stories high, of a neat and simple style, with
sloping shingle roofs) and Corinthian or Tuscan cornices.
Several had lately Been put up with a third story, "and
exhibit, for a new town, some magnificence. A handsome
frontispiece or balustrade occasionally affords an evidence
of opening taste, but the higher architectural orna-
ments, elegant summer-houses, porticos, and colonnades,
are entirely wanting." (/Few frame houses were yet even
paintedA Three market-houses were already among the
public buildings of the town. ffThe largest and highest
structure was of course the great steam-mill on the river
bank!) The buildings of the Cincinnati Manufacturing
company, however, on the bank above Deer creek, were
numerous and extensive, the main edifice being one hun-
dred and fifty feet by twenty to thirty-seven feet, and two
to four stories high. . The Columbian garden and the
great mound at the west end are mentioned as favorite
resorts for promenaders.
On the tenth of January the legislature passed another
act of incorporation for the village, essentially modifying
that of thirteen years before. The same corporation
limits were prescribed, however. The town was divided
into four wards, each electing three trustees for a term of
three years. When first met, the trustees were to choose
a mayor from their own number, and also elect a recorder,
clerk and treasurer. The council was empowered to pass
j and enforce all ordinances necessary and proper for the
\ health, safety, cleanliness, convenience, morals, and good
government of the town and its inhabitants. Real estate
was not to be taxed beyond one-half of one per cent, in
any year, without a vote of the people authorizing it. It
was the Mayor's exclusive duty to decide upon all charges
for violations of ordinances, subject to appeal to the
council or court of common pleas, at the option of the
party aggrieved by his decision. He also exercised the
principal functions of a justice of the peace, within the
town limits.
About four weeks after the battle of New Orleans, Jan-
uary 8th, the news reached Cincinnati, and created much
rejoicing. To quote Mr. L'Hommedieu again :
What a glorification our people had ! Some now present will remem-
ber the illumination, the grand procession that moved down Main street,
with a bull manacled and appropriately decorated.
Another month or more brought news of peace, made before the
great battle of the eighth was fought ; and then another grand illumin-
ation of our village. What a joyous time we boys had ! How we
equipped ourselves with paper soldier-caps, with red belts and wooden
swords, and marched under command of our brave captain as far as
Western row, now Central avenue, where we reached the woods, and,
for fear of Indians, returned to our mammas, reporting on the return
march to old Major-General Gano, who, after putting us through a
drill, gave each boy a fip to purchase gingerbread, baked by a venerable
member, formerly president of this association.
On the eleventh of December came out the first num-
ber of the consolidated journals, Liberty Hall and Cin-
cinnati Gazette, published by Looker, Palmer and Rey-
nolds. On the twenty-sixth the three banks mentioned
in Mr. Cist's notes on the early maps together suspended
payment, creating great excitement and no little real dis-
tress in the community.
Timothy Flint, the noted writer, came with his family
during the winter of this year, took a house, and re-
mained until spring. He afterwards settled here. In
his volume of Recollections, published long afterwards, he
records some pleasant reminiscences of the town and its
people :
(in no part of the old Continent that I have visited are strangers treat-
ed with more attention, politeness, and respect than in Cincinnati J and
where, indeed, can an Englishman forget that he is not at home, except
in the United States J In most other regions he must forego many early
habits, prejudices, and propensities, and accommodate himself to others,
perhaps diametrically opposite ; he must disguise or conceal his religious
or political opinions ; must forget his native language and acquire flu-
ency in another before he can make even his wants known or his wishes
understood ; but here the same language and fashion as in his own pre-
vail in every State ; indeed, it is necessary for him to declare himself. a
foreigner, to be known as such, and I have always found this declara-
tion a passport to increased attention and kindness ; for every man in
this land of freedom enjoys his opinions unmolested. Not having the
slightest intention of stopping at any town on my way to New York, I
was without any introductions ; but this deficiency by no means pre-
vented my receiving the usual benefit of the hospitality of the inhabi-
tants, which was such as to induce us at first to remain a few days, and
ultimately, probably, to end our lives with. them.
( Sixteen hundred miles from the sea, in half an age, this flourishing
and beautiful town has emerged from the woods, and when as old as
Petersburgh now is, will probably, in wealth and population, emulate
the imperial city. No troops are stationed, no public money lavished
here. It is not even the State metropolis. The people build and
multiply imperceptibly and in silence. Nothing is forced. This mag-
nificent result is only the development of our free and noble institutions
upon a fertile soil.
The banks of ihe ' Ohio are destined shortly to become almost a
continued village. Eleven years have produced an astonishing change
in this respect; for at that distance of time by far the greater propor-
tion of the course of the Ohio was. through a forest. When you saw
the city apparently lifting its head from surrounding woods, you found
yourself at a loss to imagine whence so many people could be furnished
with supplies.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN.
February 16th William Green establishes the first iron
foundry here. An order is passed by the council granting
the privilege of supplying water to the people to the
Cincinnati Woolen Manufacturing company. On the
nineteenth somebody reports the population at six thou-
sand four hundred and ninety-eight.
70
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
November 25th the first insurance company goes into
operation — the "Cincinnati."
December 2d chronicles the building of the first brig
at the Columbia shipyards. On the sixteenth the ocean-
going barge Mission arrives with a cargo of dry goods
from Liverpool.
The more pious ladies of Cincinnati start this year a
female Bible society, auxiliary to the American Bible
society.
This year comes Mr. David Thomas, writer of Travels
through the Western Country, and favors Cincinnatians
with this notice:
About three o'clock we descended through the hills, along a hollow
way, into the valley of the Ohio, and Cincinnati appeared before us.
It is a great town. Brick buildings are very numerous, and many of
these are elegant ; but compactness constitutes much of the beauty
of our cities, and in this it is deficient. Some of the streets may form
exceptions to this remark; and we ought to remember that few towns
(if any) ever rose from the forest more rapidly; that its date even now
is within the memory of the young; and that its mammoth form at no
distant period will be filled up and completed. By some it is suspected,
however, that its present greatness is premature; but this can only
apply to its mercantile concerns; for its manufactories cannot be mate-
rially affected by any change in the amount of commerce. Neither
need the merchants fear a rival city, unless it rises to the north.
Among the most respectable of the manufacturing establishments we
notice the brewery of D. & J. Embree. The works, though in a pro-
gressive state, are now sufficiently extensive to produce annually five
thousand barrels of beer and porter, and the quality is excellent. A
treadle-mill is attached to these buildings, similar in construction to'
that at Montgomery. It is turned by horses, and grinds one hundred
and twenty bushels of malt a day. In the present recess of business, it
is employed in the manufacture of mustard.
Works for green glass have lately gone into operation ; but some of
. the articles produced are very imperfect. We can sympathise with the
proprietors of new establishments; for we are aware of the many
inconveniences and discouragements that beset them at the commence-
ment; but we cannot too strongly inculcate that to attain excellence will
be the first object of the patriotic manufacturer; and such virtue could
scarcely fail of its reward.
A monthly meeting of the society of Friends, comprising about forty
families, is established in this year.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN.
The growing town had special and distinguished no-
tice from the travellers this year. First, in June, came
that industrious tourist and observer, Mr. Birkbeck,
long of Illinois, from which he wrote a series of enter-
taining letters that were collected in a book. From an-
other volume, his Travels in America, we copy the fol-
lowing extracts:
Cincinnati, like most American towns, stands too low; it is built on
the banks of the Ohio, and the lower part of it is not out of the reach
of spring floods. As if life was not more than meat, and the body
than raiment, every consideration of health and enjoyment yields to
views of mercantile convenience. Short-sighted and narrow economy!
by which the lives of thousands are shortened, and the comfort of all
sacrificed to mistaken notions of private interest.
Cincinnati is, however, a most thriving place, and, backed as it is
already by a great population and a most plentiful country, bids fair
to be one of the first cities of the west. We are told, and we cannot
doubt the fact, that the chief of what we see is the work of four years.
The hundreds of commodious, well-finished brick houses, the spacious
and busy markets, the substantial public buildings, the thousands of
prosperous, well-dressed, industrious inhabitants, the numerous wagons
and drays, the gay carriages and elegant females; the shoals of craft
on the river, the busy stir prevailing everywhere — house-building,
boat-building, paving and leveling streets; the numbers of country peo-
ple constantly coming and going; the spacious taverns, crowded with
travellers from a distance.
All this is so much more than I could comprehend from a descrip-
tion of a new town just risen from the woods, that I despair of con-
veying an adequate idea of it to my English friends.. It is enchant-
ment, and Liberty is the fair enchantress.
June 27, Cincinnati. All is alive here as soon as the day breaks.
The stores are opened, the markets thronged, and business is in full
career by five o'clock in the morning; and nine o'clock is the common
hour for retiring to rest.
As yet I have felt nothing oppressive in the heat of this climate.
Melting, oppressive, sultry nights, succeeding broiling days, and for-
bidding rest, which are said to wear out the frames of the languid in-
habitants of the Eastern cities, are unknown here. A cool breeze al-
ways renders the night refreshing, and generally moderates the heat of
the day.
Then came Mr. Burnet— a New England traveller, we
believe — who makes many and judicious remarks upon
the town :
As Cincinnati is the commercial capital of the State of Ohio, a State
which twenty-five years ago contained but a few thousand inhabitants,
and is now well settled by half a million white inhabitants, I have been
somewhat particular in describing its commerce, manufactures, and
inhabitants.
The general appearance of the city is clean and handsome — indeed,
elegant and astonishing, when we reflect that less than forty years ago
it was the resort of Indians, and the whole surrounding country a wil-
derness, full of wild beasts and savages.
The present number of buildings may be between thirteen and four-
teen hundred, and the number of the inhabitants'eight thousand, all
whites, the laws of Ohio prohibiting free negroes (except in certain
cases) from settling in the State. Near five hundred of the houses are
built of stone or brick, many of them three-story high, and in a very
neat, modern style. The rest of the houses are frame, most of them
neatly painted.
The public buildings are of brick, and would ornament an European
city. The new court-house is a stately edifice, fifty-six by sixty-six feet,
and one hundred feet high; the apartments are fire-proof. Presby-
terians, Baptists, Friends, and Methodists, have each a meeting-house.
Those belonging to the Presbyterians are furnished with taste. The
Friends' meeting-house is a temporary wooden building. The Lancas-
terian seminary is a capacious structure, calculated to contain one
thousand one hundred scholars, male and female. There are three
brick market-houses, the largest is upwards of three hundred feet long.
I have counted near sixty tilted wagons from the
country on a market day, chiefly with produce, which is brought to
market by the farmer and sold from the wagons.
The police of the city is respectable; they have, however, no lamps
or watch, nor do they require any. We boarded in the heart of the
town, and our doors were mostly open night or day. Theft is very
rare; the lowest characters seem above it.
The climate is healthy, if we may judge from the appearance of the
inhabitants. At this season (July) the mornings and evenings are
delightful ; mid-day hot, but not too hot to do out-door work. The
winters are short and pleasant.
The manners of most of the inhabitants are social and refined, with-
out jealousy of foreigners (which is sometimes the case with the ignor-
ant or interested in the eastern and middle states) ; they are pleased to
see a respectable European settle amongst them. Many cultivate the
fine arts, painting, engraving and music. With few exceptions, we
found the English language spoken with purity.- . . . The
inhabitants dress much in the English fashion. In summer many of
both sexes wear domestic or home manufactured ginghams, and straw
hats. Gentlemen, and many tradesmen, wear superfine cloth coats'
blue and black are the prevailing colors. The ladies dress elegantly, in
muslin, short-waisted gowns, vandyked frill or ruffle round the neck,
and an English cottage or French straw hat. When about their house-
hold concerns, they wear a large, long, peaked hat, to defend their
features from the swarthing influence of the sun and air.
The city, in all probability, will soon be the largest in the West; it is
rapidly improving in size; sixty new brick and frame houses have been
occupied since last fall; and at least as many more are now building,
besides several manufacturing shops and factories. There is more
taste displayed in building and laying out grounds and gardens than I
have yet observed west of the Alleghany mountains.
The price of town lots is high, and houses in the principal streets dif-
ficult to obtain on hire. The lots in Main, First and Second streets sell
for two hundred dollars a foot, measuring on the front line; those pos-
sessing less local advantage sell from fifty to ten dollars; out-lots, and
The Bazaar.
Erected by Mbs. Tbolilofe, 1828-9; Demolished in Mabch, 1881.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
7i
land very near the town, sells for five hundred dollars per acre. Taxes
are very moderate. . . The price of labor is one dollar per
day. Mechanics earn two dollars. Boarding is from two to three, and
five dollars per week. Five dollars per week is the price of the best
hotel in the city. . . Living is very cheap here; and it is easily
to be accounted for, in the cheapness and fertility of the surrounding
country, the scarcity of tax-gatherers, and the distance of a market for
the supplies.. You can have very decent board, washing, and lodging,
by the year for one hundred and fifty dollars.
Mr. George Warren, an old-time resident of the city,
also contributes to Cincinnati Past and Present the fol-
lowing interesting reminiscences of this period:
jfl Cincinnati, in the year 1817, was a bright, beautiful, and flourishing
Me city. It extended from the river to Sixth street, and from Broad-
way to Walnut street, and not much beyond those limits.) The court-
house, which stood upon the same ground as the present one, was con-
sidered to be in the country, and its location an outrage on the citizens.
(The houses were beautifully interspersed with vacant lots, not yet sold,
which were covered with grass. The city contained about nine thou-
sand inhabitants.) These were then called girls and boys, and men and
women, frhe fuel was wood, except in factories. The people generally
had clean faces; for the men shaved, and did not allow their counte-
nances to be covered with hair and dirt. There was an air of comfort
pervading everything J In summer the women dressed as they pleased;
but the men usually went to church in summer dresses. .Sometimes
they wore linen roundabouts and vests and woollen pants. I The people
were enterprising and industrious; a pedestrian could hardly walk a
square without encountering a brick wagon or stone wagon, or seeing a
new cellar being dug. Industrious mechanics would be met hurrying
to and fro, and in their working dress. A brick-la yer would not hide
his trowel, nor a carpenter his hatchet, under his coat. Everything
gave promise of the city's continued prosperity, but a desire to become
suddenly rich had led too many into wild speculations, on borrowed
money, from the United States and other banks. They were willing to
lend to almost anyone who could get two indorsers.^ This was no diffi-
cult matter, for it bad got to be a maxim, "You indorse for me, and I
indorse for you." (Some persons not worth a dollar bought lots and
built houses on speculation. Others bought wild lands, built steam-
boats, etc. Some, who had become rich jn imagination, began to live
in,a style ill suited to their real condition.^
(But a day of reckoning was at hand. In 1819 the United States
bank began to call in its accounts; others were obliged to do the same;
and those speculators, to avoid the sheriff, began to scatter like rats
from a submerged flour barrel.) Sheriff Heckewelder complained that
his friends had taken a sudden notion to travel, at the very time he most
wanted them. Some fled east, some west, some to Kentucky, and some
the Lord knows where, (it soon became impossible to get money any-
where. Building was entirely stopped. The spring of 1820 was *
gloomy time. All business was brought to a sudden stand) No more
brick wagons, stone wagons, or new cellars were to be' seen in the
streets. The mechanics lately so blithe and cheerful had gone in dif-
ferent directions in search of work, at any price, to keep themselves
and families from starving. Almost any mechanic could be hired for
fifty cents a day, working, as was then the custom, from sunrise to sun-
set; few could get employment at that. They were willing to work at
anything they could do, and at any price. One of our boss carpenters
bought a wood-saw and buck, and went about sawing wood. Our
leading brick-layer procured a small patch of ground near the Brighton
house, and raised watermelons, which he sold himself, in the market.
The only professed sashmaker in the place, the lats John Baker, esq.,
who died not long ago a millionaire on Walnut Hills, procured u piece
of woodland in the country, and chopped the wood, brought it to mar-
ket, sitting on his load, and sold it for a dollar and a half a cord.
Other good mechanics went chopping wood in the country for thirty-
seven and a half cents a cord. One of these was the late A. H. Ernst,
esq. The writer would have done- the same, but no chance offered.
There was no money, and people even going to market resorted to
barter. A cabinet maker, for instance, would want two pounds of but-
ter, amounting to twenty-five or thirty cents. Without a penny in his
pocket, he would take his basket, go te the market, find a farmer that
had some, take two pounds, and give him a table, bedstead, or even a
bureau, agreeing to take the rest out iii.truck, as he would call it, when
he should want it! This could not be done by carpenters and masons.
They would go into the country and build ovens or spring-houses, and
repair buildings, taking their pay whenahe work was done. Our mer-
chants, being unable or unwilling to bring on fresh supplies of dry
goods and groceries, these ran up to enormous prices; coffee was sev-
enty-five cents, and common coarse brown sugar thirty-seven and one-
half cents a pound. Rye coffee, sweetened with molasses, was found a
poor substitute; and we suffered considerably for want of our custom-
ary breakfast.
Public meetings were held to consider what was to be done. At one
of these Mr. Blake, an attorney, had expressed a fear that our wives
and children would starve. Mr. Gazlay, the next speaker, also an at-
torney, said: " Brother Blake is afraid our families will starve. I have
but one child, and don't fear it will starve; Brother Blake has none, and
I am sure it won't starve." Country produce of all kinds was never so
low before nor since; but the difficulty lay in getting money to pay
even these low prices. Flour was three dollars a barrel, corn twelve
and one-half cents a bushel, beef six and one-fourth cents a pound,
pork in quarters from the wagons three cents a pound, eggs five cents a
dozen, and chickens four cents a piece. A prominent and truthful citi-
zen now living relates that, being then a young man and living in the
country, he brought to the lower market two dozen chickens. After
standing there most of the forenoon a man offered him fifty cents a
dozen if he would carry them to the Mill Creek bridge. He accepted
the offer and actually carried them the whole distance on his back. If
any imagine that the people need not have feared starving when provis-
ions were so cheap, they are like the Queen of France during the Revo-
lution, who said, when the people of Paris were actually starving, that
she did not see why there need be such a clamor about bread when ' ' a
good-sized loaf may be got at the baker's for five sous."
Finally it was found that money of some kind must be had. This
induced some individuals to issue tickets, or little due-bills, on their
own credit. They were sometimes as low as six and one-fourth cents.
Of these bankers John H. Piatt and Mr. Leathers, of Covington, were
the chief. This currency had different values, according to people's es-
timate of the solvency of the individuals. The corporation had issued
tickets before this. In making contracts it had to be agreed what kind
of money was to be received; so much in "corporation," or so much
in "Piatt," or so much in "Leathers." Sometimes contracts would
call for "bankable money." By this was meant the notes of those few
banks that had not already broken. If any specie was seen it was gen-
erally "cut money," or half-dollars cut into five triangular pieces, each
passing for twelve and one-half cents.
f Such was the scarcity of money that many who had purchased prop-
erty and paid large amounts on it were willing to give up the money
already paid to be released from paying the remainder) Real estate
had indeed fallen; a prominent citizen now among us had purchased a
lot of ground, near our present gas works, for sixteen thousand dollars,
paying half down in cash. He offered to give up all the money paid if
the owner would release him ; but he would not. Houses and stores,
with bills on them offering them "for rent," were everywhere seen, and
rents were low.
On the thirty-first of May arrived a young lawyer
named Bellamy Storer, to cast in his fortunes with those
of the rising community. Mr. Joseph Jonas, rather
doubtfully reported as the first Israelite in town, is said
also to have come this year. He opened a watchmaker's
shop on the corner of Third and Main streets, and soon
acquired much political influence. He is sometimes re-
puted to have been the father of Cincinnati Democracy.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN.
The sixth edition of Kilbourne's Ohio Gazetteer, or
Topographical Directory, published this year, gives the
town this notice:
Cincinnati is a large commercial city and the seat of justice for Ham-
ilton county. August 18th the number of inhabitants had
increased to upwards of nine thousand, and public improvements in
proportion. There are about sixty common mercantile stores, several
of which do wholesale business, with about ten book, drug, iron, and
shoe stores. . The Cincinnati Manufacturing Company has
erected for their works an extensive building, one hundred and fifty
feet long by thirty-seven broad, and four stories high. A most stupen-
dously large building of stone is likewise erected on the bank of the
Ohio river for a steam mill. It is nine stories high at the water's edge,
and is- eighty-seven feet ldng and sixty-two broad. The engine is one
of seventy horse-power, and is designed to drive four pair of stones, be-
sides an oil-, fulling-, and several other mills. In another building is
72
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
also a valuable steam saw-mill. Here are, likewise, one woollen and
four cotton factories, two glass-making establishments, >■ white lead
factory, a sugar refinery, and two extensive breweries. A considerable
business is also done, not only in the distilleries, but also in the rectifi-
cation of spirits. Here are also four printing offices, from three of
which weekly papers are published ; four banking companies, besides a
wealthy commercial association for the purpose of importing goods
direct from Europe, by way of New Orleans.
This was a great year for public benefactions. Seven
persons subscribed twenty-seven thousand dollars for the
Lancasterian seminary. A site for a poor-house was pur-
chased by public authorities, and a hospital planned, as
preparatory to the founding of a medical college. A
museum society was formed, and contributions were solic-
ited, Dr. Drake drawing up a constitution for it so as to
make it a school of natural history. The Cincinnati
reading-room was opened by Elam P. Langdon and Rev.
William Burke. The first Roman Catholic church in'
town was founded.
The General Pike, said to be the first steamboat built
on the western waters for the exclusive conveyance of
passengers, was constructed at Cincinnati this year — of
one hundred feet keel, twenty-five feet beam, and three
and three-tenths feet draft. It was owned by the Cin-
cinnati Company, and intended to ply between Louis-
ville, Cincinnati, and Maysville.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN.
This was an important year in the annals of Cincinnati,
marking its transition from a village to a city, an act
passed by the State legislature giving it the deserved pro-
motion. ) The new city was divided into four wards, by
lines aiong Main and Third streets, intersecting at the
corner of these. Isaac G. Burnet was the first mayor
under the new organization.
The population of the city this year, according to the
census taken for the directory in July, was nine thousand
eight hundred and seventy-three4-males, five thousand
four hundred and two; females, four thousand four hun-
dred and seventy-one; males of twenty-one years and
over, two thousand three hundred and sixty-four ; females,
one thousand six hundred and thirty-two; males from
twelve to twenty-one, eight hundred and forty; females,
eight hundred and twenty- three; males under twelve, one
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine; females, one
thousand five hundred and forty-five; colored persons,
three hundred and sixty-seven — males, two hundred and
fifteen; females, one hundred and ninety-five. The
directory contains the following remarks upon the charac-
ter of the population :
\ This mixed assemblage is composed of emigrants from almost every
part of Christendom^ The greater part of the population are from the
Middle and Northern States. (We have,) however, /many foreigners
amongst us; and it is not uncommon to hear three or four different
languages spoken in the streets at the same time. A society so com-
pounded can have but few of those provincial traits of character which
are so visible in older settlements. 1 Having been bred and educated
under different habits and modes of thinking.fevery individual is obliged
to sacrifice to the general opinion many of his prejudices and local
peculiarities, and to adopt a more liberal mode of acting and thinking.
Coming also from different countries and various climates, they bring
and collect together a stock of knowledgeand experience which cannot
exist among those who have all grown up together, i Being adventurers
in pursuit of fortune, a spirit of enterprise, and a restless ambition to
acquire property, are prevailing characteristics. The citizens of Cin-
cinnati are generally temperate, peaceable and industrious, Gaming is ■
a vice almost unknown in the city. Under the influence of a strict
police, good order is maintained ; fighting or riot in the streets rare,
and is uniformly punished with rigor. Qreat attention is paid to the
institutions of religion, and the mass of the more respectable citizens
are regular in their attendance on public worship^ In their parties, as-
semblies and social meetings, the greatest ease and familiarity prevail,
and many traits are to be met with of that politeness and uiiianity of
manners which distinguish the polished circles of older cities.
The same work gives the following honorable notice
and further remarks concerning the material improve-
ment of the place:
For many years the vast influx of emigrants has furnished opportu-
nity for a very profitable investment of funds in building houses. The
preference which Mr. John H. Piatt has given to the improvement of
Cincinnati, over foreign speculation, is an honorable evidence of his
public spirit and local attachment. This gentleman, within five years
past, has built twenty-eight brick houses, chiefly three stories irwheight,
besides twenty-five frame houses, which are neatly finished. Bit is the
opinion of several well informed mechanics that not less thah three
hundred buildings were erected in 1818; and, notwithstanding the de-
pression of commercial business, probably not- less than two-thirds of
that number will be built in 1819. The buildings, however, which are
occupied as dwellings, are insufficient to contain the inhabitants with
any tolerable convenience. Four, six or eight families have not un-
frequently been found inhabiting a house of six or eight roomsS The
actual number of dwelling-houses being one thousand and three, the
average number in each family, allowing one family to each house, is
more than nine persons. The houses, generally, are rather neat and
convenient than splendid; most of those that have been built within the
last five or six years, have been constructed of brick, and by far the
greater portion of them are two or three stories in height. /One pre-
vailing trait, displayed in almost all the houses in town, is a want of
architectural taste and skill. All the public buildings, except the Cin-
cinnati banking house, fully exemplify the above remark. One or two
good architects would unquestionably meet here with excellent encour-
agement.. The improvements that have been made here in paving
streets and sidewalks, filling up stagnant ponds, reducing the upper
bank to a proper angle of descent for streets and buildings, etc. , have
for several years been commensurate with the mos(<diberal policy of the
corporation and the best exertions of the citizens.^According to the
best estimate we can make, the length of pavement in the several
streets is between eight and nine thousand feet; that of the sidewalks
vastly greater. The streets in width are between sixty and one hundred
feet. '
In March of the same year an enumeration had been
made of the buildings within the corporation, which
footed one thousand eight hundred and ninety — of brick
and stone, two stories and upwards, three hundred and
eighty-seven; of one story, forty-five; wood, two or more
stories, six hundred and fifteen; one story, eight hundred
and forty-three. Occupied as separate dwellings, one
thousand and three; mercantile stores, ninety-five; gro-
cery stores, one hundred and two; druggists, eleven;
confectioneries, four; auction and commission, five;
printing-offices, five; book and stationery stores, four;
churches, ten; banks, five; shops, factories, and mills,
two hundred and fourteen ; taverns, seventeen; seminary,
court house, and jail, three ; warehouses and other build-
ings, four hundred and twelve. Other buildings were in
progress, and it was expected that by the close of the year
the buildings in the city would number over two thou-
sand. Among the new edifices in progress were the
court house and jail, the seminary, three churches, two
market-houses, and several manufactories. The churches
were the First Presbyterian, on the old site; the brick on
Sixth street, formerly Baptist, then Episcopal; the Meth-
odist, on Fifth, a new brick, belonging to the same de-'
nomination, on the corner of Fourth and Plum; and the
4^tf^o
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
73
old frame on Vine street; the Second Presbyterian, on
Walnut; the Friends', near the west end of Fifth; and a
Roman Catholic church lately erected in what were then
called "the Northern Liberties."
Three fine steamers — the Vulcan, the Tennessee, and
the Missouri — were launched here March 30th.
July 4th the address is delivered by Bellamy Storer.
Further celebration was made by getting the first throw of
water from the new tin penstock. It was supplied by log
pipes from a small reservoir on the hillside, at the south-
west corner of Fifth and Sycamore streets.
August 3d, the ordinance passed by the council in re-
lation to fire-buckets is required to be vigorously enforced.
December nth, the city treasurer proves a defaulter.
The Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian
church, is temporarily appointed to his place.
This year (Mr. L'Hommedieu thought it might have
been in 1820), a serious riot was threatened through the
failure of the Miami Exporting Company's bank. A pro-
cession comprising many of those who had suffered from
the closure of the bank, with their sympathizers, was
formed in the upper part of the city, and marched down
Main street. A number of drays helped to give length
and imposing character to the column. One of them
bore a black coffin with the words painted thereon, " Mi-
ami Bank No More." The bank building was situated
on Front street, near Sycamore, and a detachment of
military had taken position in front of it, to protect the
building and its contents against the threatened mob vio-
lence. The procession marched without interruption or
disturbance until the intersection of Front street with
Main was reached. Just here, fortunately, on the south-
east corner, was the office of the mayor, Isaac G. Burnet,
who was awake to the perils of the situation, and on full
duty. Although unable to walk or even to stand without
crutches, he moved to the head of the column, and read
the riot act to the multitude. Many who were in the
movement were not lawless or dangerous men, and now,,
seeing the real character of their demonstration, and the
perils to law and order which it involved, they led the
way at once in breaking up the procession and diverting
the thoughts of its members into more peaceful channels.
The military were not called upon to adopt severer meas-
ures, and the bank was saved.
This year appeared the first Directory of the town or
city. It was entitled "The Cincinnati Directory, con-
taining the Names, Profession, and Occupation of the
Inhabitants of the Town, alphabetically arranged; Also,
an account of its officers, population, institutions, and
societies, public buildings, manufactures, etc. With an
interesting sketch of its local situation and improvements.
Illustrated by a copper-plate engraving, exhibiting a view
of the city. By a Citizen. Published by Oliver Farns-
worth. Morgan, Lodge & Co., Printers, October, 1819."
An almanac for 1820 is also included. About two thou-
sand names of individual and firms were included in this
publication.
The most remarkable man who came to Cincinnati
this year was probably Captain John Cleves Symmes, son
of Timothy, brother of Judge Symmes. His father (also
a judge in New Jersey), early followed the elder brother
to the Miami country, and settled at South Bend, where
he died February 20, 1797. His family remained there,
and among them John C. Symmes, who, through the in-
fluence of the judge, obtained a commission in April,
1802, when he was twenty-two years old, as an ensign in
the regular army. By successive promotions he became
captain, and served as such through the war of 1812-15.
In 1807 he fought a duel at Fort Adams, on the Lower
Mississippi, with Lieutenant Marshall, in which both were
wounded seriously enough to feel the effects of their in-
discretion through the rest of their lives. Captain
Symmes left the army in 1816 and settled at St. Louis as
a contractor for the army and trader with the Fox In-
dians. He was not altogether successful, however, and
in 1819 removed to Covington, Kentucky, where he re-
mained a few months, and then came to this city, taking
a residence on Lower Market street, between Broadway
and Sycamore, in a three-story brick row built by John
H. Piatt, who then had a bank at the southeast corner of
Broadway and Columbia streets. Captain Symmes re-
mained in Cincinnati but a year or two. He still had
some property near Hamilton, upon a section presented
to him by his uncle, Judge Symmes; but appears to have
spent the last seven or eight years of his life, when not
absent lecturing, in Newport, Kentucky. While at St.
Louis he began to promulgate his famous theory of con-
centric spheres, polar voids, and open poles. The gist
of this is in his published declaration "to all the world,"
made from St. Louis, Missouri Territory, North America,
April 10, a. d., 1818:
I declare that the earth is hollow and habitable within, containing a
number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is
open at the poles twelve or sixteen degrees. I pledge my life in sup-
port of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will
support and aid me in the undertaking.
Jno. Cleves Symmes,
Of Ohio, late Captain of Infantry.
His future life was devoted mainly to the advocacy of
this theory, and his efforts to demonstrate it and pro-
mote its acceptance. In 1820, after issuing numerous
circulars and newspaper articles, he began lecturing in
Cincinnati, and then in other western towns and cities.
A benefit was given in aid of his proposed polar expedi-
tion, at the Cincinnati theatre, March 29, 1824, when
Young's tragedy of Revenge was performed by an ama-
teur company, in which was the now venerable Colonel
James Taylor, of Newport, who played the part of
Zanga. Mr. Americus Symmes, son of Captain Symmes,
says: "He and I are the only two now living of the
Newport Thespian society of 1824. He was equal to
Forrest in his palmiest day, in the character of Sir
Edward Mortimer, in the Iron Chest. L performed fe-
male parts." Mr. Collins recited an appropriate address
written by Moses Brooks, foreshadowing the great discov-
eries to be made in the polar regions, and closing with
these lines:
Has not Columbia one aspirng son,
By whom the unfading laurel may be won?
Yes ! History's pen may yet inscribe the name
Of Symmes to grace the future scroll of fame.
He had not similar encouragement elsewhere, however.
74
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Congress and legislatures, press and people, with rare ex-
ceptions, treated his arguments and appeals with indiffer-
ence or ridicule; and the end of the ardent theorist soon
came. He fell into ill health, and became much en-
feebled in 1826 by a laborious tour through the eastern
cities, Maine, and Canada. His chief ailment was dys-
pepsia, induced by long continued overwork upon his
theories and plans. Notwithstanding his now serious ill-
ness, in New York city he was thrown into jail by a heart-
less landlord, for inability to pay a bill of thirty to forty dol-
lars, and remained incarcerated three days, when he was
relieved by a friendly Cincinnatian who happened to be
in the city, and who helped him to the residence of a
relative in New Jersey, where he remained until his
health was measurably restored. He managed to reach
Cincinnati in February, 1829, and was there presently
met by his son Americus with a two-horse wagon and a
mattress, upon which he was borne to the farm near
Hamilton — to which the family had removed in March
of the previous year — where he died May 29, 1829, aged
only forty-eight. His monument, erected by Americus
Symmes, formerly crowned with a hollow globe, open at
the poles, and bearing appropriate inscriptions, may be
seen in the old cemetery at Hamilton. This son, who
resides at "Symmzonia," a farm near Louisville, remains
a firm believer in the theory. In a recent letter to the
writer of these annals he communicates a paragraph
which has some local as well as general interest, and well
repays its reading. Its opening sentence relates to the
time of Captain Symmes' last return and illness:
I was then seventeen years old, and he was too ill to talk much ; but
he charged me just to keep an eye to the explorations in the north, and
I would find his theory would be proven true. I have kept an eye on
the northern explorations, and find that the further north they get the
stronger grow the proofs of the truth of his theory, Your Cincinnati
explorer, Captain Hall, who went further north than any other man of
his day (except Parry on his third voyage), did more to prove the truth
of the Symmes theory than all other explorers. I saw the sled-runners
in Captain Hall's hands, made in your city, that bore him up to 82° 2'
north, where he wrote his last dispatch to the secretary of the navy, in
which he says : I find this a much warmer country than I expected,
and it abounds with life, etc. Just to think a Cincinnati man studied
out the theory, and another citizen of your city made the sled-runners
there, and rode on them up to 820 2' north, and thereby proved the
theory true as far as he went.
It may be added that the younger son of Captain
Symmes, a native of Newport, Kentucky, was also named
John Cleves Symmes, was a graduate of the West Point
Military academy, and served his country creditably as a
teacher there and as an officer elsewhere. He lived for
a number of years in Prussia, where, in 1866, he had a
son of a German mother, who took the name of John
Haven Cleves Symmes.
CHAPTER XL
CINCINNATI'S FOURTH DECADE.
^-— EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY.
/ Population this year, by the United States census,
/ nine thousand six hundred and forty-two. \ Vote of the
\city, eight hundred and fifty. :
February 2, meeting of citizens to consider the good-
ness of John H. Piatt's "shinplasters." Resolutions
passed against them. On the eighth, the ice in the Ohio
breaks up, after having been frozen over for three weeks.
The first water-service pipes, wooden, were laid this
year.
Congress, worthily though tardily, voted a gold medal
to Lieutenant R. Anderson, of Cincinnati, for gallant
conduct in Perry's battle on Lake Erie.
In June a museum was opened in Cincinnati College,
which was for many years an interesting feature of
amusements here.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTV-ONE.
The Commercial hospital and Ohio medical college
were incorporated February 1st. On the twenty-eighth
the Hon. Jacob Burnet was appointed a Judge of the
Supreme Court.
July 28th the fire department of the city turns out for
a public parade, and makes a brave display with its two
hand-engines and two hose-reels.
The council building was this year on Fourth street,
near the corner of Walnut, and the independent engine
is removed thither. The vote of the city is said to have
been seven hundred and thirty-two; which could not
have been full, as it is more than a hundred less than
that of the year before, and less than half that of the
next year.
September 26th occurs the first commencement of the
Cincinnati College, which confers the honorary degree
of Master of Arts on William Henry Harrison, the Rev.
Joshua L. Wilson, and the Rev. James A. Kemper.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO.
The first theatrical benefit given here, to Mrs. A.
Drake, a favorite actress of that day, occurred in the
ball-room of the Cincinnati hotel.
March 27 th, directors of the city library were elected
— Lewis Whiteman, Benjamin Drake, Nathan Guilford,
and Peyton S. Symmes.
June 8th a meeting is held to promote the scheme of
a canal from Cincinnati to Piqua.
September 9th there is a considerable freshet in the
Ohio.
October 7th a notable political event occurs, in the de-
feat of General Harrison for Congress, by James W.
Gazlay, though only by the meagre majority of three
hundred and forty-two votes.
This year came George Graham, who became a very
prominent citizen of Cincinnati, and survived until Feb-
ruary, 1 88 1.
The total value of exports this year from Cincinnati
was two hundred and seventy-nine thousand dollars,
chiefly in flour, pork, and whiskey.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
75
Vote at the municipal election in 1822, one thousand,
five hundred and ninety-seven.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE.
January 30th, certain adventurous business men of the
city broach a project for a whaling and sealing voyage to
the Indian ocean.
September 3d, the citizens, dissatisfied with the ar-
rangements of the authorities for the protection of per-
son and property, meet to organize a volunteer city
watch.
November 3d, a great calamity is inflicted upon the
business of the city, by the burning of the famous great
stone steam-mill. Material is at once collected for rebuild-
ing, however. Among prominent business men now are
noted Kilgour & Taylor, Barr, Patterson & Son, Keat-
ing & Bell, grocers; John Sterrett & Company, John Du-
val, G. V. H. Dewitt, dry goods merchants; Griffin &
Company, C. & J. Bates, druggists; Piatt Evans and
James Comly, tailors; Moses & Jonas, auctioneers; J.
& G. R. Gilmore, brokers.
Aggregate vote this year, one thousand, eight hundred
and sixty-one.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR.
f Population this year is twelve thousand and sixteen4-
Eirst ward, three thousand one hundred and fifty-seven;
Second, four thousand five hundred and thirty-one;
Third, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight;
Fourth, two thousand five hundred and forty. The
number of families was two thousand one hundred and
nineteen; of dwelling houses, one thousand six hundred
and sixty-eight.
Until 1824 it is said that the whole city had voted at
one polling-place, generally the Mayor's office on Third
street. At the presidential election of this year the vote
was by wards.
February 24th, Mr. Samuel W. Davies offers the water-
works, which are private property, to the city for thirty
thousand dollars, in convenient payments. His offer is
declined by a meeting or a vote of the citizens, and he
sells to the new Cincinnati Water company at the same
price.
May 19th, the corner-stone of the old St. Peter's
cathedral (Roman Catholic), on Sycamore street, is laid,
Bishop Fenwick conducting the ceremonies.
The statistics of nativity, taken for the directory of this
year — the second Cincinnati directory issued — show a
very large percentage of Pennsylvanians and Jerseymen in
the population, three hundred and ninety-four ' of the
names given for the directory being those of natives of
the Keystone State, and three hundred and thirty-seven
of New Jersey birth; two hundred and thirty-three were
New Yorkers, one hundred and eighty-four native to
Massachusetts, one hundred and seventy to Maryland,
one hundred and forty-three Connecticut, one hundred and
thirteen Virginia, and less than one hundred to any other
State. Ohio as yet contributed but fifty-two native
Buckeyes — adults, of course — to the directory, and any
other State not mentioned less than fifty. A good many
native foreigners were represented — English, one hun-
dred and ninety-two; Irish, one hundred and seventy-
three; Germans, sixty-two; Scotch, thirty-nine; Welsh,
twenty-one; Swiss, seventeen, and one or two each of
Swedes, Dutch, and Poles. Multiplying the numbers,
respectively, by five, the products, in most cases, will
probably show the actual number of population of the
several classes then here. The State or country of
nativity, whenever known, was entered with the person's
name in the directory — a unique feature, truly.
The directory notes the entire compact portion of the
city as being included within the space of one mile
square.
February 2d, General Harrison was elected by the
Legislature to the United States Senate.
The first fancy front in town is put up this year on
Main street, by Piatt Evans, tailor. His sign was still
up in 1856, when it was the oldest sign in the city.
In the month of May, General the Marquis de Lafay-
ette, accompanied by his son, on their tour through this
country, paid Cincinnati the honor of a visit. Mr.
L'Hommedieu says:
The occasion brought here thousands from the country. AH within
a circuit of a hundred miles seemed to be here. Lafayette approached
our city from Lexington, Kentucky, where he had been to visit Henry
Clay. He was met and welcomed at our landing by Governor Mor-
row and General Harrison. The whole public ground between Main
street and Broadway, and Front street and the river, was densely
crowded with men, women, and children, and the windows, balconies,
and roofs of the buildings fronting the river were alive with people
waving their welcome. After tarrying in our city from noon of one
day to midnight of the next, he departed up the river. The day of his
arrival, as well as that which followed, and his departure at midnight,
will be remembered, by those who witnessed the scenes, as long as their
memories last. All was grand; but the closing scene, at twelve o'clock
at night, with the illumination on both sides of the river, the crowd of
many thousands of our people on the landing, the beautiful display
made by all the steamboats in port, the procession of military com-
panies, the firing of cannon from our landing, from the boats, and from
the arsenal at Newport, with the martial music, seems to me, after the
lapse of fifty years, the most brilliant sight of my life.
Major Daniel Gano's splendid turnout of six bay
horses attached to an open phaeton awaited Lafayette at
the steamer landing — the only equipage of the kind in
Cincinnati. In the evening, before the ball, a public
reception was given to Lafayette in the Major's orchard,
whkh was brilliantly illuminated. A new lodge of Free
Masons, called Lafayette No. 81, was constituted in
honor of his coming, of which he became an honorary
member, and which publicly celebrated his obsequies
July 20, 1834, upon the death of the eminent patriot.
Joseph S. Benham, esq., a brilliant young lawyer of this
city, made the reception speech upon Lafayette's arrival,
on behalf of the public authorities and citizens. A grand
ball was given at night in the Cincinnati hotel.
Henry Clay himself had a reception and banquet at
the same hotel in June of this year. The opportunity
was taken by Mr. Clay for a vindication of himself, in an
elaborate and very eloquent speech, from the famous
charge of " bargain and sale," which had been made
against him in connection with the recent presidential
election. There were present, besides Mr. Clay, Gover-
nors Clinton, Morrow, and Brown, and some scores of
prominent Cincinnatians. Governor/Poindexter was also
in town, but was detained away from the dinner. Tickets
76
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
to it were three dollars apiece; but were purchasable by
any one who had the wherewithal, and the disposition to
expend it in this way. Mr. L'Hommedieu says :
Although then an apprentice-boy of nineteen years, I managed to
raise three dollars, and attended the dinner. The sight of so many
distinguished characters seated at a table, which crossed the ends of
three or four longer ones, was a novel one to me, and I fancied myself
in the presence of giants, until after the wine was freely drank, the
cloth removed, smoking commenced, and speeches and story-telling be-
came the order. Then 1 thought, to use the language of Governor
Vance, ' ' Most great men look smaller the nearer you get to them. "
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE.
This year witnessed the breaking of ground for the
Miami canal, at Middletown, June 21, by Governor Dewitt
Clinton, of New York. The- ceremony has been else-
where described.
Dr. Samuel Thompson, founder of the botanical sys-
tem of medicine and patentee of the celebrated Thomp-
sonian remedies, came to Cincinnati this year, and made
many converts to his school of practice.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX.
The publication of another work of local character,
Cincinnati in 1826, by Benjamin Drake and E. D. Mans-
field, both young men struggling to get a living at the
bar, furnishes the means of giving a pretty full picture of
the Queen City at this time. Their book, which was a
worthy successor of Dr. Drake's two pioneer volumes,
had the honor of publication the same year (1826) in
London, as an appendix to Mr. W. Bullock's Notes of a
Journey, of which more will be presently said. It is note-
worthy that the book was subsidized by the city council,
to the extent of seventy-five dollars voted to the authors
firir taking a census of the population.
1 In December of this year, the population numbered
snrteen thousand two hundred and thirtw— four thousand
and eighty-four in the First ward, six thousand four hun-
dred and ninety-nine in the Second, two thousand five
hundred and five in the Third, and three thousand one
hundred and forty-two in the Fourth — seven thousand
nine hundred and ninety males, and seven thousand five
hundred and fifty females. The average number to a
building was six and a half persons. There were twenty-
eight clergymen, thirty-four lawyers, thirty-five physicians,
about eight hundred in trade and mercantile pursuits,
five hundred in navigation, and three thousand in manu-
facturing. Mr. Mansfield, recounting his experience in
taking census statistics for his book, says: "In all this
visitation into the recesses of society, I never met a sin-
gle pauper family, nor one really impoverished. The
great body of them were mechanics, with plenty to do,
generally owning their own homes, and in fact a well-to-
do people.''
The number of buildings in the city was two thousand
four hundred and ninety-five — eighteen stone, nine hun-
dred and thirty-six brick, seventeen of them four-storied,
one thousand five hundred and forty-one frames, six hun-
dred and fifty of one story, one thousand six hundred
and eighty-two of two stories, and one hundred and sixty-
three of more than two.
The growth of the city, during this and the preced-
ing year, had been greater than in any former period of
equal length. The yearly ratio of increase in population
from 1810 to 1813 was twenty-four per cent ; 1813-19,
twenty-six per cent; 1819-24, three and five-tenths;
1824-26, seventeen. For sixteen years the population
of no town in the United States, of the rank of Cincin-
nati, had increased in corresponding raticu) Manufactur-
ing establishments had also greatly increased within two
years, some details of which will be found in our chapter
on manufactures. The value of manufactures in and
near the city, for the year, was one million eight hundred
and fifty thousand dollars.
The United States land office was now at the east end
of the city, the register's office near the corner of Law-
rence^ and Congress, the receiver's north of Congress,
near Broadway. The United States branch bank had
been founded here, and there were two insurance com-
panies and 'several agencies. Mr. N. Holley kept a gen-
eral agency and intelligence office. There were ten li-
censed auctioneers, who sold thirty-three thousand eight
hundred dollars' worth this year, paying a duty of three
per cent, thereon — one-half of it going to the Commer-
cial hospital, the other to the medical college of Ohio.
Real property was advancing at the rate of ten to twelve
per cent, a year, and many pieces twelve to eighteen.
Interest was high, three per cent, a month being some-
times paid on small sums, and ten to twenty per annum
on larger. There were then no penalties on usury.
rThe city was becoming somewhat a summer resort for
the inhabitants of the south, especially Mississippi, Ala-
bama and Louisianal\ Yellow Springs and the Big Bone
Lick had also become prominent as places of temporary
resort for excursionists.
The Miami canal was now under contract, and thirty-
one miles, from Main street to the dam at Middletown,
were nearly finished. Great benefits were expected to the
city from the water-power to be gained in the descent
from the upper level to the river, about fifty feet —
enough, it was estimated, to turn sixty pair of millstones.
The branch bank of the United States was still flourish-
ing in a fine freestone front — "one of the chastest speci-
mens of architecture within the city;" and the medical
college was already in its present location on Sixth, be-
tween Vine and Race, though the building was still un-
finished. The commercial hospital and lunatic asylum
was up and occupied. The college building was also in
place, with accommodations for a thousand pupils. The
Cincinnati theatre stood on the south side of Second
street, between Main and Sycamore. A Masonic grand
hall was projected for the next year, in the hope of loca-
ting the grand lodge of the State permanently in Cincin-
nati. The purchase of the Burnet property between
Third and Fourth, Race and Vine, was urged for use as
a city hall and public square. It could have been had
then for twenty-five thousand dollars, which was the
amount for which the judge presently let it go to the
United States branch bank, to satisfy its demands upon
him. It was already handsomely adorned with shade-
trees, flowering shrubs, and evergreens, and several lib-
eral gifts for its ornamentation were promised if it were
made public property. The Cincinnati water company,
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
77
for example, would put in a fountain gratuitously. (The
bridge over the Ohio was still urged, and it was thought
it could be built, with nine stone piers, breakers, and
connecting with both Newport and Covington, for one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Various canals were
also in prospedtu besides the Miami, which was so hope-
fully under waju) The valuation of the city was three
million one hundred and fifty-seven thousand three hun-
dred and ninety-two dollars, and its revenue for 1826
twenty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-two dol-
lars and eighty-one cents — less than half of it from taxa-
tion. A new city charter, promising improvements in
local government, was about to go into operation.
Messrs. Drake and Mansfield seem abundantly justi-
fied in their closing - predictions of "continued pros-
perity in wealth and population. The period is not a
remote one when Cincinnati will hold the same rank
among cities of the Union that the great State of which
she is the ornament now possesses in the American con-
federacy."
In May the city was visited by a noble personage,
Bernhard, Uuke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, who after-
wards wrote a book of his travels. He said in it, how-
ever, nothing of account concerning Cincinnati. His
observations on the village of Montgomery, through
which he passed in coming here, will be found in the
history of Sycamore township.
October 20th, General James Findlay was elected to
Congress from the Cincinnati district.
November 18th, the water company begins to supply
the city through its ground-pipes and hydrants. On the
twenty-seventh Philip Lewis, a colored man, was hanged
for the murder of Thomas Isbell, April 4th. He is said
to have been the only one of his race hanged here for
more than forty years.
At this time, however, says Mr. L'Hommedieu, Cincin-
nati "was undergoing the severe ordeal of paying off 'old
debts.' Through the branch bank established here by
the United States bank, during the years of inflation and
extravagance which preceded this period, most of the
real-estate owners had become almost hopelessly in debt,
and large portions of their property had been taken by
the United States bank, and subsequently sold at an
advance. Some few obtained the right of redemption,
and, by borrowing money in New York and Philadelphia,
succeeded in saving their estates; but many, if not a
majority, of their debtors went under. Interest ranged
from ten to thirty-six per cent, and there was no legal
limit. At this period the valuation of the property listed
for taxation in our city was six million eight hundred and
forty-eight thousand four hundred and thirty-three dollars*
not more than some half-dozen or less of our citizens
combined are now worth."
The vote of the city this year was two thousand three
hundred and forty-nine. The new buildings put up num-
bered four hundred and ninety-six— eight one-story brick,
one hundred and thirty-one two-story, seventy-seven
three-story, and one four-story; twenty-nine one-story
•This does not agree, it will be observed, by over three . millions and
a quarter, with Drake and Mansfield's statement.
frames, two hundred and fifty two-story; — two hundred
and seventeen brick structures, two hundred and seventy-
nine frame.
May 21st, the Miami canal is" put under contract from
Middletown to Dayton. November 21st, two canalboats
start for Middletown, from Howell's Basin, six miles
above Cincinnati, in the presence of a large crowd.
The arrivals and departures of steamers at this port,
from the first of November, 1827, to the eighth of June,
1828, number seven hundred and thirty-nine.
It is probable that the temperance meeting held at the
court house in September of this year, was the first of the
kind in Cincinnati. It was only the year before that Dr.
Lyman Beecher had delivered the powerful lectures
against intemperance, from his pulpit at Litchfield, Con-
necticut, which, being widely published, had made a pro-
found impression in favor of reform. The American
Temperance society was organized the same year, and its
branches spread very rapidly. Nowhere in the country,
probably, did the customs of society, in the matter of in-
dulgence in intoxicants, need reformation more than in
Cincinnati; and indue time the movement reached here.
Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his Life of Dr. Drake, gives the
following amusing account of the initial meeting :
The meeting was held at three o'clock in the afternoon, and for those
days was really large and respectable. Many old citizens were present
who were familiar with old whiskey and upon whose cheeks it blossomed
forth in purple dyes. To these, and indeed to the great body of people
in the west, a temperance speech was a new idea. Dr. Drake was the
speaker, and they listened to him with respectful attention, and were by
no means opposed to the object. The speech, however, was long. The
docior had arrayed a formidable column of facts. The day was hot;
and after he had spoken about an hour without apparently approaching
the end, some one, out of regard for the doctor's strength, or by force
of habit, cried out: " Let's adjourn awhile and take a drink ! " The
meeting did adjourn, and, McFarland's tavern being near by, the old
soakers refreshed themselves with "old rye." The meeting again as-
sembled, the doctor finished his speech, and all went off well. Soon
after the temperance societies began to be formed, and the excitement
then begun has continued to this day.
The visit of an English traveller of some distinction,
Mr. W. Bullock, "F. L. S., etc., etc.," aids to make inter-
esting the annals of this part of the Ohio valley for the
year, as connected with a promising enterprise on the
Kentucky shore, upon the site of what is now little more
than a suburb of Cincinnati — the village of Ludlow.
While approaching the city from New Orleans, by river,
the traveller's eye was caught by an elegant mansion,
upon an , estate of about a thousand acres, a little below
the then jcity, and the property of Hon. Thomas D. Car-
neal, an extensive landholder and member of the Ken-
tucky legislature. During his short stay here he visited
the place, was easily prevailed upon to buy it, and upon it
projected "a proposed rural town to be called Hygeia."
He evidently thought no small things of his city in the
air; for upon an outline map of the United States, pre-
fixed to his "Sketch of a Journey through the Western
States of North America," he notes no other towns than
Cincinnati and "Hygeia." His plan for the place was
drawn by no less a personage than I. P. Papworlh, archi-
tect to the King of Wurtemburg, "etc., etc.," and repre-
sents a magnificent town — on paper. The eastern end
was to be nearly opposite the mouth of Mill creek, about
78
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
<*•▼
atthe further terminus of the present Southern Railroad
bridge, and the western end a mile distant. The extreme
breadth, back from the river, was about half the length.
The place was elegantly platted, with four large squares
in the middle, called, respectively, Washington, Jefferson,
Adams, and Patterson squares. Little parks diversified
the border of this great quadrangle. Two other squares,
named from Franklin and Jackson, were provided for.
The streets were considerably in curves, after the Euro-
pean manner. Agricultural, horticultural, and kitchen
gardens, a cemetery "as Pere la Chaise at Paris,'' a chapel
therein, four churches, three inns, two shops, a theatre,
bath, town hall, museum, library, a school, and another
public building, with a statue and a fountain, have all
their places upon this plat. Mr. Bullock published it in
October, 1826, upon his return to England, with his Sketch
of a Journey, adding as an appendix Drake & Mansfield's
Cincinnati in 1826, then a brand-new book; but all did
not avail to prevent the scheme from joining the grand
army of wrecked "paper towns." The old Bullock or
Carneal house is still, however, prominent among the
most interesting of local antiquities on the Kentucky
shore.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT.
(The opening of the Miami canal gave fresh life to
business. Real estate made rapid advancement in price,
and those who had made investments in it, were fortu-
nate in their sales. The people were no longer depend-
ent on mud roads and the river for their supplies, and
provisions were abundant and comparatively cheap. It
•had before happened occasionally that, during a mild and
open winter, the roads had been frightfully bad, even im-
passable; and the relief given by the canal was such as
is difficult, indeed, to realize under the commercial con-
ditions that now prevail^) A great calamity was experi-
enced, however, December nth, in the destructive fire
that devastated half the square on Main street, between
Third and Fourth — one of the most solid business blocks
in the city. The weather was extremely cold, and but
two engines could play upon the fire. The citizens,
women and children included, formed a line to the river,
and did what they could in passing fire-buckets; but
without much avail.
The valuation of taxable property in the city this year
was three millions six hundred and ninety-seven thousand
seven hundred and thirty-three dollars, and the tax nine
and five-tenths mills, yielding, with other receipts, a rev-
enue of thirty-five thousand nine hundred and ninety-
three dollars and forty-three cents. There were expended
by the corporation forty-six thousand one hundred and
fifty-six dollars — twenty-two thousand and five dollars for
paving streets and alleys, including excavations. A loan
of thirty thousand dollars was necessarily made this year,
the total expenditures being sixty-five thousand four
hundred and twenty-nine dollars and twenty-one cents.
Miller & Company's cotton factory went into operation,
also the Hamilton foundry and steam-engine factory,
Goodloe & Borden's and West & Storm's engine facto-
ries, Fox's steam grist-mill on Deer creek, at the terminus
of Fifth street, and other business enterprises.
The bills of mortality for 1828 show deaths to the
number of six hundred and forty-seven, being one in
every thirty-seven of the population — a pretty high death
rate, compared with the rates of succeeding years — as one
in thirty-four (eight hundred and twenty) in 1831, and
one in twenty-seven (one thousand one hundred and
seventy) in 1833.
This year came to Cincinnati one of the most remark-
able women who ever set foot in the city — one who, un-
like all other foreign travellers through the valley, left
here a most singular monument of her residence, which
endured for more than half a century — -the Trol-
lopean Bazaar. It was built by Mrs. Frances Trollope,
an Englishwoman, who resided here and in the neighbor-
hood for a little more than two years. She is probably
very poor historical authority, especially in Cincinnati,
whose people and institutions she abused so persistently
and unmercifully; but she was a woman of unmistakable
powers of mind and literary talent — as the mother of
Anthony Trollope must have been — and her observations
are always entertaining, if often far from just. We shal 1
give some extracts, here and elsewhere, from her subse-
quent book on The Domestic Manners of the Americans.
She came alone from Memphis, with her son and two
daughters, Mr. Trollope and another son joining them
here the next year. In the first volume of her book she
says:
We reached Cincinnati on the tenth of February. It is finely situ-
ated on the south side of a hill that rises gently from the water's edge,
yet it is by no means a city of stnking appearance ; it wants domes,
towers, and steeples ; but its landing place is noble, extending for more
than a quarter of a mile ; it is well paved and surrounded by neat
though not handsome buildings. I have seen fifteen steamboats lying
there at once, and still half the wharf was unoccupied.
The sight of bricks and mortar was really refreshing, and a house of
three stories looked splendid. Of this splendor we saw repeated speci-
mens, and moreover a brick church which, from its two little peaked
spires, was called the two-horned church. . Certainly it
was not a little town, about the size of Salisbury, without even an at-
tempt at beauty in any of its edifices, and with only just enough of the
air of a city to make it noisy and bustling. The population is greater
than the appearance of the town would lead one to expect. This is
partly owing to the number of free negroes who herd together in an ob-
scure part of the city, called Little Africa, and partly to the density of
the population around the paper mills and other manufactories. I be-
lieve the number of inhabitants exceeds twenty thousand.
At that time I think Main street, which is the principal avenue, and
runs through the whole town, answering to the High street of our old
cities, was the only one entirely paved. The trottoir [sidewalk] is of
brick, tolerably well laid, but it is inundated by every shower, as Cin-
cinnati has no drains whatever. . . Were it furnished with
drains of the simplest arrangement, the heavy showers of the climate
would keep them constantly clean ; as it is, these showers wash the
higher streets, only to deposit their filth in the first level spot ; and this
happens to be in the street second in importance to Main street, run-
ning at right angles to it, and containing most of the large warehouses
of the town. This deposit is a dreadful nuisance, and must be produc-
tive of miasma during the hot weather.
The following passage will be read with considerable
amusement by the myriad dwellers on the hills in this
latter day:
tlills, :
(To the north, Cincinnati is bounded by a range of foresticovered
hills, sufficiently steep and rugged to prevent their being built'upon or
easily cultivated, but not sufficiently high to command from their sum-
mits a view of any considerable extent. Deep and narrow water-courses,
dry in summer, but bringing down heavy streams in winter, divide these
hills into many separate heights, and this furnishes the only variety the
landscape offers for many miles around the town. The lovely Ohio is
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
79
a beautiful feature wherever it is visible, but the only part of the city
that has the advantage of its beauty is the street nearest to its bank.
Though I do not quite sympathize with those who consider Cincin-
nati as one of the wonders of the earth, I certainly think it a city of
extraordinary size and importance, when it is remembered that thirty
years ago the aboriginal forest occupied the ground where it stands,
and every month appears to extend its limits and its wealth/)
During nearly two years that I resided in Cincinnati or its*neighbor-
hood, I neither saw a beggar nor a man of sufficient fortune to permit
his ceasing his efforts to increase it. Thus every bee in the hive is ac-
tively employed in search of that honey of Hybla, vulgarly called'
money; neither art, science, learning, nor pleasure can seduce them
from its pursuit.
Notwithstanding fourteen hundred new dwellings had been erected
the preceding year, the demand for houses greatly exceeded the
supply.
Perhaps the most advantageous feature in Cincinnati is its market,
which, for excellence, abundance, and cheapness, can hardly, I should
think, be surpassed in any part of the world, if I except the luxury of
fruits, which are very inferior to any I have seen in Europe. There are
no butchers, fishmongers, or indeed any shop for eatables, except baker-
ies, as they are called, in the town : everything must be purchased at
market. . . The beef is excellent, and the highest price
when we were there, four cents (about twopence) the pound. The mut-
ton was inferior, and so was the veal to the eye, but it ate well, though
not very fat ; the price was about the same. The poultry was excellent;
fowls or full-sized chickens, ready for the table, twelve cents, but much
less if bought alive, and not quite fat; turkeys about fifty cents, and
geese the same. The Ohio furnishes several sorts of fish, some of them
very good, and always to be found cheap and abundant in the market,
Eggs, butter, nearly all kinds of vegetables, excellent, and at moderate
prices. From June till December tomatoes (the great luxury of the
American table in the opinion of most Europeans) may be found in the
highest perfection in the market for about sixpence the peck. They
have a great variety of beans unknown in England, particularly the
Lima bean, the seed of which is dressed like the French harico; it fur-
nishes a very abundant crop, and is a most delicious vegetable.
The watermelons, which in that warm climate furnish a most
delightful refreshment, were abundant and cheap ; but all other melons
very inferior to those of France, or even of England, when ripened in
a common hotbed. . It is the custom for the gentle-
men to go to market at Cincinnati ; the smartest men in the place, and
those of the ' ' highest standing, " do not scruple to leave their beds with
the sun, six days in the week, and, prepared with a mighty basket, to
sally forth in search of meat, butter, eggs and vegetables. I have con-
tinually seen them returning, with their weighty baskets on one arm
and an enormous ham depending on the other.
Cincinnati has not many lions to boast, but among them are two
museums of natural history; both of these contain many respectable
specimens, particularly that of Mr. Dorfeuille, who has, moreover, some
interesting antiquities. . . The people have a most ex-
travagant passion for wax figures, and the two museums vie with each
other in displaying specimens of this barbarous branch of art.
There is also a picture gallery at Cincinnati, and this was a
circumstance of much interest to us. . It would be in-
vidious to describe the picture gallery; I have no doubt that some years
hence it will present a very different appearance,
f I never saw any people who appeared to live so much without amuse-
nJent as the Cincinnatians. Billiards are forbidden by law; so are
cards. To sell a pack of cards in Ohio subjects the seller to a penalty
of fifty dollars. They have no public balls, excepting, I think, six dur-
ing the Christmas holidays. They have no concerts. They have no
dinner parties. They have a theatre, which is, in fact, the only public
amusement of this little town; but they seem to care very littjeabout it,
and, either from economy or distaste, it is very poorly attended?}) Ladies
are rarely seen there, and by far the larger proportion of females deem
it an offense to religion to witness the representation of a play.
There are no public gardens or lounging shops of fashionable
resort, and were it not for public worship and private tea-drinkings, all
the ladies of Cincinnati would be in danger of becoming perfect re-
cluses.
Mrs. Trollope took for a time a country-house at Mo-
hawk, then a straggling village along the Hamilton road
at the base of Mount Auburn, where Mohawk street per-
petuates its name and memory. She, by and by, deter-
mined to set up her son in business here, and projected
the scheme which eventuated in the building of the Ba-
zaar. The City Directory for 1829 gives the following
entertaining account of this remarkable enterprise. It
is hardly probable the writer would have been so glowing
and enthusiastic in his descriptions, had he foreseen the
criticisms which Mrs. Trollope would pass upon Cincin-
nati and Cincinnatians in her forthcoming book, to say
nothing of the criticisms which the local public and fu-
ture travellers, notably Mrs. Trollope's countrymen and
countrywomen, would give her remarkable creation on
East Third street. The article serves, however, as an
excellent means of information concerning the design of
the builders of the Bazaar, and the feelings of the citi-
zens toward it when the enterprise was new ;
The Bazaar. — This exotic title carries the imagination directly to
Constantinople, so celebrated for mosques, minarets, caravansaries, and
bazaars. In sober English, bazaar signifies a fair or market place.
The building which is the subject of the present notice, and which is
now in rapid progress toward completion, is called the Bazaar, although
but a small portion of its ample area is to be appropriated to its legiti-
mate uses as a constant mart. The name, albeit, is in- good keeping
with the style of the edifice, the freestone front of which exhibits a rich
and beautiful specimen of arabesque architecture, combining the airy
lightness of the Grecian with the sombrous gravity of 'the Gothic taste.
The basement story, which is entered by three several flights of stone
steps, contains divers neat and commodious apartments. Those
fronting the street are designed for an exchange coffee house, one of
them to be fitted up and furnished as a bar-room, the other to be ap-
propriated, as the name imports, to the transaction of general com-
mercial business. Over the basement is a splendid compartment, sixty
feet by twenty-eight, and ornamented by two rows of columns passing
through it. This room gives title, if not character, to the building.
Here is to be held the bazaar, where, it is presumable, every useful and
useless article in dress, in stationery, in light and ornamental house-
hold furniture, chinas and . more pellucid porcelains, with every gewgaw
that can contribute to the splendor and attractiveness of the exhibition,
from the sparkling necklace of "lady fair" to the exquisite safety-chain,
will be displayed and vended.
In the rear of the bazaar is an elegant saloon, where ices and other
refreshments will lend their allurements to the fascinations of architect-
ural novelty. This saloon opens to a spacious balcony, which in its
turn conducts to an exhibition gallery, that is at present occupied by
Mr. Hervieu's picture of Lafayette's Landing at Cincinnati. Above
the bazaar is a magnificent ball-room, the front of which, looking over
the street, will receive the rays of the sun, or emit the rival splendors of
its gas-illumined walls, by three ample, arabesque windows, which give
an unrivalled lightness and grace to the festive hall. The walls and the
arched and lofty ceiling of- this delectable apartment are to be deco-
rated by the powerful pencil of Mr. Hervieu. The rear of the room
is occupied by an orchestral gallery, whence dulcet music will guide
' ' the light fantastic toe ' ' through the mazes of the giddy dance.
Behind the ballroom is another superb saloon, issuing also to a bal-
cony. This division is assigned to the accommodation of gentlemen's
private parties, where the beau monde may regale themselves when and
how they list. Over this is a circular structure of exceedingly light and
beautiful proportions, which is intended for panoramic exhibitions; and
around it is constructed, in concentric circles, an airy corridor, from
whence the eye, that has been already delighted to satiety by the exhi-
bitions of art, may recreate itself amid the varied beauties and bland-
ishments of nature.
The rear of this antique and multifidous edifice presents a noble
facade of Egyptian columns, which will vie, in magnificence and novelty,
with the Arabian windows that decorate its front. The apartments are
all to be lighted by gas, furnished by Mr. Delany. The whole arrange-
ment and architectural of this superb building reflects great credit upon
the taste and skill of Mr. Palmer, the architect. The interior dimen-
sions of the building are : Length, one hundred and four feet ; width,
eighty feet ; height to the top of the spire, which is to surmount the
cupola, eighty feet ; height from base to cornice, thirty-three feet.
The Bazaar stands on Third street, east of Broadway.
The building was still new when sold at sheriff's sale to
8o
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
pay the mechanics who worked upon it, and underwent
important changes at the hands of its different owners,
especially in the addition of another story to its height.
It has been occupied for many uses in the course of fifty-
two or three years, from the original occupation by the
Mechanic's institute down to its habitation largely by
women of ill-fame. Of late it had fallen into utter disre-
pair and dilapidation, except one room, which has been
occupied by a rolling-mill office. Long ago the paint-
ings with which Hervieu decorated its walls and ceilings
(the ceiling of the large hall is said to have been very
elaborately adorned), disappeared under successive coats
of whitewash and then of wall-paper — "a striking exhibi-
tion of vandalism," says Mr. Foote, in his Schools of
Cincinnati, "as the putting them on these walls was an
act of folly ; for, although not works of very high art, they
possess too much merit lo be defaced." The observa-
tions of her son Anthony, the famous novelist, upon his
visit to Cincinnati in the winter of 1861-2, will have in-
terest here:
I had some little personal feeling in visiting Cincinnati, because my
mother had lived there for some time,- and had there been concerned in
a. commercial enterprise, by which no one, I believe, made any great
sum of money. Between thirty and forty years ago she built a Bazaar
in Cincinnati, which I was assured by the present owner of the house
was at the time of its erection considered to be the great building of the
town. It has been sadly eclipsed now, and by no means rears its head
proudly among the great blocks around it. It had become a Physico-
medical institute when I was there, and was under the dominion of a
quack doctor on one side and of a college of rights-of-women female
medical professors on the other. ' ' I believe, sir, no man or woman ever
made adollar in that building; and as for rent, I don't even expect it."
Such was the account given of the unfortunate Bazaar by the present
proprietor.
In addition to their pecuniary troubles, sickness afflicted
the Trollopes much during their second season here, and
finally, seeing that "our Cincinnati speculation for my
son would in no way answer our experience," they deter-
mined to go back to England. The party left in early
March, 1830, and she says, "I believe there was not one
of our party who did not experience a sense of pleasure in
leaving it. The only regret was that
we had ever entered it; for we had wasted health, time,
and money there." Her experiences in this city, un-
doubtedly, had much to do in imparting gall and venom
to the celebrated book which she published shortly after
her return to the old home.
Dr. Caldwell, a phrenologist, sometimes called in that
day "the Spurzhcim of America," delivered a course of
lectures in the city this year, and created much sensa-
tion. Some twenty or thirty citizens were led to form
the Phrenological society of Cincinnati, with an elaborate
constitution, numerous officers, and other details of
equipment; but it hardly survived beyond the third
meeting. Miss Fanny Wright, the famous English Rad-
ical and Socialist, also lectured here to crowded houses.
She was an intimate friend of Mrs. Trollope and Her-
vieu, and was just then trying the experiment of coloniz-
ing negroes upon a tract called "Nashoba," in Tennessee;
which of course proved a failure.
EIGHTEEN1 HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE.
Population of the city this year, twenty-four thousand
one hundred and forty-eight; 'whites twenty-one thousand
J
eight hundred and ninety — males eleven thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five, females ten thousand and thirty-
five; colored two thousand two hundred and fifty-eight.
New buildings, two hundred and seventy. Deaths for
the year ending July 1, six hundred and forty-seven, or
one in thirty-seven and one-third of the population.
The Washington Ball of this year, February 22d, is said
to have been a very brilliant affair.
February 27th General Jackson passed through Cincin-
nati, on his way from his home in Tennessee to Washing-
ton, to be inaugurated as President of the United States.
Three steamers were in the Presidential fleet, all crowded
with passengers. They reached the landing amid can-
non-firing and other demonstrations of applause, passed
the city about a quarter of a mile, and then rounded in
the stream and swept grandly down to the landing, the
escorts falling back a little, to let the steamer with the
President first touch the shore. "All the maneuvering,"
says Mrs. Trollope, who was an eye-witness of it, "was
extraordinary well executed, and really beautiful." Car-
riages were in waiting for the General and his suite; but
he walked in a simple, democratic way through the crowd
to- the hotel, uncovered, though the weather was cold.
He was clad in deep mourning, having but lately lost his
wife. He remained quietly at the hotel a few hours,
while the steamer transacted its business, and then pro-
ceeded with it to Pittsburgh.
In the spring of this year, beginning April 13th, the
notable public seven-days' debate occurred between the
Rev. Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciple
Church, and Mr. Robert Owen, of the New Harmony
(Indiana) and other communities, in pursuance of
Owen's challenge to the Christian ministry that he would
show publicly the falsehood of all religions ever propa-
gated, and would undertake to prove all equal, and nearly
all equally mischievous. The challenge was accepted by
Mr. Campbell, who was then in the prime of his strong
powers; and the debate was attended by audiences that
thronged to overflowing the spacious Methodist church,
which held about one thousand people. It was regulated
by a presiding committee, in which were Major Daniel
Gano, Judge Burnet, Rev. O M. Spencer, Timothy
Flint, and other leading citizens. Fifteen sessions for
debate were held, and the vote at the close showed that
the sympathies of a very large majority of their hearers
were still in favor of Christianity. The addresses of the
disputants were afterwards published in book form.
A Young Men's Temperance society was organized
this year, starting off with about one hundred members.
About the middle of this year the office of the sur-
veyor general of the public lands in the northwest came
back to Cincinnati, by the worthy appointment of Gen-
eral William Lytle to that post. Ex-Governor Tiffin,
the last previous incumbent, was early removed upon the
accession of General Jackson to the Presidency, under
the new principle then brought into application in Fed-
eral appointments, that "to the victors belong the spoils;"
although Dr. Tiffin had held the place most acceptably
during the successive administrations of Presidents Madi-
son, Monroe, and J. Q. Adams. On the first of July
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
81
General Lytle visited the office at Chillicothe, exhibited
his commission and an order for the delivery of the
records, and at once removed the office to Cincinnati.
Dr. Tiffin had long been struggling with disease, and was
now near his end, closing a long and honorable public
career August 9, 1829.
i In May, 1829, the city had a visit from Caleb Atwater,
61 Circleville, the first historian of Ohio and one of the
first writers to publish a book upon American antiquities.
He was on his way to fulfill some commission for the
Government in the far northwest, and records the follow-
ing of Cincinnati, in the book which he subsequently
published:
In this city are one hundred, at least, mercantile stores, and about
twenty churches. Some of the stores do business in a wholesale way,
though quite too many of them are occupied by retailers on a small
scale. fThere are a great many taverns and boarding houses. Among
the churches, the First and Second Presbyterian, one belonging to the
Unitarians, and the Roman Catholics, and perhaps two or three belong-
ing either to the Episcopalians or the Methodists, are the best. There
are two museums, in either" of which more knowledge of the nat-
ural history of the western States can be obtained in a day than can be
obtained in any other place in a year.} These collections are very well
arranged, and kept by persons of taste, science, and politeness. No
traveller of learning should ever pass through the city without calling
to see them both, and, having once seen them, he will never neglect to
see them as often as he visits the place.
There are nine book stores, and a greater number still of printing
establishments, that issue newspapers. The two principal publishers of
newspapers issue each a daily paper.
The mechanics of this city are numerous and very excellent in their
several trades. Manufactures of iron, of wood, of stone, of all the
metals indeed, are carried on with zeal, industry and talent. The build-
ers of houses are unrivaled in the rapidity with which they do their work,
and they exhibit genius, skill, and taste.
There are nearly sixty lawyers, who, for learning, zeal, fidelity, indus-
try, morality, honor, honesty, and every other good qualification of the
heart and head, are equal to a like number of the same honorable and
highly useful profession, in any city in the United States.
The number of physicians and surgeons in the city must be, I pre-
sume, nearly eighty, who are skillful, learned, and highly respectable in
their profession.
ffhere are probably about forty clergymen in the city; and from the
morality of the place I give them credit for a considerable degree of
usefulness.
It will with great ease increase to a population of about fifty thou-
sand inhabitants. Its increase beyond that number depends on so many
causes, not yet developed, that human foresight cannot now scan them)
It will, however, continue to be the largest town in the State, unless
Zanesville or Cleveland should exceed it. [!]
/There is but one evil hanging over this city — the price of land is ex-
travagantly high, and so are house and ground rents. Every material
used in building is cheap, mechanical labor is low in price, and so is
every article of food and raiment.
Main street, for a mile in length from north to south, presents a scene
as busy, as bustling, as crowded, and if possible more noisy, especially
about the intersection of Fourth street with Main street, and also any-
where near the Ohio river, as can be found in New York.) If the ear
is not quite so much afflicted with strange cries as in Philadelphia or
Baltimore, yet for drumming and organ-grinding^I should suppose
some few spots in Main street, Cincinnati, would exceed anything of the
sort in the world-+at least I should most heartily and charitably hope so.
CHAPTER XII.
CINCINNATI'S FIFTH DECADE.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY.
It was an important decade in the growth and annals of
events in the Queen City. (The population had grown
in the ten years 1820-30, from nine thousand six hun-
dred and forty-two to twenty-four thousand eight hun-
dred and thirty-one, or two hundred and sixty per cent.;
it was to continue to grow in this decade in satisfactory
ratio, though not relatively so fast, from twenty-four
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one to forty-six thou-
sand three hundred and thirty-eight, or eighty-five per
cent.) The number of new buildings this year was two
hundred and five.
The following notices of local improvements are con-
tained in the directory for 1831 :
During the past year a new street was opened, extending Lower Mar-
ket street from Main to Walnut; and both sides oi it are now, or soon
will be, wholly built up with brick warehouses and other buildings, all
of which are beautiful and substantial. The hotel on the corner, where
the new street enters Walnut, will be one of the most splendid edifices
in the western country. It is five stories high above the basement, and
is to be covered with marble columns. The new street has received the
name of "Pearl street," and promises to be to Cincinnati what its cele-
brated namesake is to New York.
Among the best buildings erected in 1830 we would mention, in addi-
tion to the above, Greene's splendid row on Front street; Cassilly's
& Carter's on the corner of Broadway and Front; and Moore's on the
southeast corner of Main and Fourth streets. Much more taste. has
been displayed in the models of private dwellings than heretofore, espe-
cially in those erected on Fourth street. Of the public buildings fin-
ished during the past year, we would mention the Catholic Atheneum,
the Unitarian and the Second Presbyterian churches. The latter is
considered by good judges one of the best models of the Doric in the
United States. It is of brick, but its front, pillars, and sides are cov-
ered with cement, in imitation of marble. The cost of this church was
more than twenty thousand dollars. On its cupola has been placed a
public clock, which belongs to the city. *
This year the Miami canal was extended from the
then head of Main street, where it had stopped tempo-
rarily, across Deer creek, which it spanned by a large
culvert. The canal commissioners proposed another
halt here for a time, and the leasing of the water-power
along the borders of the new line. The improvement
was finished in July, 1834. The business of the canal
was now rapidly increasing.. During three months of
1829, the tolls at Cincinnati amounted to but three
thousand five hundred and fifteen dollars; while in
a single month, the first of navigation in 1831, they ag-
gregated two thousand ninety-five dollars and sixty-five
cents.
In the spring of this year a young attorney came to
Cincinnati, who was favorably introduced under the name
of Salmon P. Chase. He came from Washington, where
he had been keeping a classical school for boys. His
edition of the Statutes of Ohio, published soon after-
wards, with a preliminary sketch of State history, at once
gave him wide and permanent fame, and brought him
large practice. In 1834 he became solicitor of the Branch
Bank of the United States, and also for a city bank. In
1837 he had a very celebrated case, in which he de-
* This church stood on the south side of Fourth street, between Race
and Vine, about where the Mitchell & Rammelsberg company now have
heir furniture warehouse.
82
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
fended a colored woman, claimed as a slave under the
law of 1793. In the same year he made an argument
in defense of James G. Birney, indicted for harboring a
fugitive slave, that won him great praise, and was also
widely noticed.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE.
Some notable men, more or less identified with the
history of Cincinnati, were in public office this year.
John McLean was a justice of the supreme court; Peyton
S. Symmes register, and Morgan Neville receiver of
the land office, which was still maintained here; Micajah
Williams was surveyor general, Charles Larabee surveyor
of the port of Cincinnati, and Colonel William Piatt
paymaster in the army.
I Two hundred and fifty new buildings were put up this
Vy_ear. y Population, twenty-six thousand and seventy-one.
Bills of mortality, eight hundred and twenty, or one in
thkty-four of the population.
(The first macadamized road was built into the city
this year, and others speedily followed. /
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO.
The city made some progress, despite many drawbacks.
Three hundred buildings were erected, and the total
number in the city was now four thousand and sixteen.
The population increased nearly two thousand, or to
twenty-eight thousand and fourteen. Nevertheless, it was
a sad year for Cincinnati. It was scourged by flood,
fire, famine, and cholera. The freshet of the year is
memorable in the river and local annals. The Ohio
began to rise about the ninth of February, and was at
its maximum height on the eighteenth, when it touched
the extraordinary level of sixty-two feet above low-water
mark. Great suffering and loss of property and in some
cases lives were experienced all along the river, but es-
pecially at Cincinnati. The whole of the old-time
"bottom" was flooded so deep and so far up that the
ferry boats landed at the corner of Main and Pearl streets.
The Mill creek bridge was swept off, and that over Deer
creek badly damaged. Thirty-five squares were inunda-
ted, many buildings damaged or wrecked, or swept off
bodily, and thousands of people were turned out of
house and home. Two lives were lost in the raging
wate'rs. A town meeting was held February 15, and
measures of relief to the distressed and homeless were
devised. Vigilance committees to prevent theft and
wanton destruction of property, also committees of relief
and of shelter, were appointed. All public buildings,
school-houses, the basements of churches, and every
available place of refuge, were surrendered to the refu-
gees, and relief afforded as rapidly as possible. Benefits
were given the sufferers by Mr. Letton of the Museum,
Mr. Frank, with his gallery of paintings, Mr. Brown, of
the amphitheatre, and the Beethoven society, which gave
a concert of sacred music Many weeks elapsed before,
the waters having subsided, the city below Third street
resumed its wonted aspect, and then many injured build-
ings or desolated spots told of the ruin that had been
wrought.
Most of the provision stores and groceries were then
kept in the drowned districts; and few had time to re-
move their stocks before the flood reached them. There
was consequently a scarcity of food, and a partial famine
added to the miseries of the situation. Mr. L'Homme-
dieu says of this and other calamities of the year.
The greater portion of flour and other provisions had been kept below
high-water mark. Some few, more successful than others, had suc-
ceeded in raising their stocks of flour to upper stories. But, then, what
exorbitant prices they demanded, and would have obtained but for the
denunciation of an independent press ! Later in the year, and follow-
ing the fire, flood and famine, came the dreaded pestilence, the Asiatic
cholera, which carried more of our population to their graves than have
any of its visitations since, notwithstanding our then small population
of twenty-five thousand. |
One of the results of the cholera was a large number of orphans. \
The ladies of Cincinnati found an occasion for their efforts in caring for \
the unfortunates. With funds placed in their hands by the Masonic
lodges, and others of the city, they founded the Cincinnati orphan asy-
lum. The city gave them the use of a building on the ground now /
occupied for the beautiful Lincoln park. f
The great fire occurred the early part of the year, and
devastated the tract from below Third street to the Com-
mercial bank.
The cholera came on the thirtieth of September, and
staid for thirteen months. The board of health for some >
time denied the presence of~AsiaTjc~chakra, but on the" '
tenth of October published an official list of deaths from
that cause. In that month died here four hundred and
twenty-three persons — over half of all who fell from the
scourge duting its prevalence in the city. Forty-one died
in one day — the twenty-first of October. The dreadful
epidemic continued until late in the year, and was re-
newed the next season. Says a paragraph in the Life of
Bishop Morris:
The city, during the prevalence of this dreadful epidemic, presented
a mournful aspect. Thousands of citizens were absent in the country;
very many were closely confined by personal affliction or the demands
of sick friends; hundreds were numbered among the dead; the transient
floating population had entirely disappeared; the country people, in
terror, stood aloof ; business was almost wholly suspended; the tramp
of hurrying feet was no longer heard on the streets; the din of the city
was hushed, and every day appeared as a Sabbath. Instead, however,
of the sound of church-going bells and the footsteps of happy throngs
hastening to the house of God, were heard the shrieks of terror-stricken
victims of the fell disease, the groans of the dying, and the voices of
lamentation. For weeks funeral processions might be seen at any hour,
from early morning to late at night. All classes of people were stricken
down in this fearful visitation. Doctors, ministers, lawyers, merchants
and mechanics, the old and the young, the temperate and the intemper-
ate, the prudent and the imprudent, were alike victims. Seventy-five
members of the Cincinnati station died that year, and fifty of them
were marked on the church records as cholera cases.
This year, on the fourth day of November, was to oc-
cur the semi-centennial celebration of the temporary
occupation opposite the mouth of the Licking, by a por-
tion of General George Rogers Clark's force, in 1782, as
agreed by the officers and men at that time. General
Simon Kenton, Major James Galloway, of Xenia, John
McCaddon, of Newark, and a few others, were still living,
and they caused extensive advertisement of the proposed
celebration to be made in the western papers, for several
months beforehand. It was intended, on the third or
fifth of November (the fourth coming on Sunday this
year), among other observances, to lay the corner-stone
of a suitable monument at the intersection of several
streets on the site of old Fort Washington; but whin the
day came, cholera was stalking with awful presence
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
83
through every street and by-way of Cincinnati, and only
a handful of the venerable survivors met in the city,
sadly exchanged greetings and reminiscences, uttered
their laments for the honored dead, and partook of a din-
ner at the expense of the city. The following address, pre-
pared by General Kenton, to awaken interest in the oc-
casion, will still be read with pleasure :
ADDRESS TO THE CITIZENS OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY.
The old pioneers, citizen-soldiers and those who were engaged with
us in the regular service in the conquest of the western country from
the British and savages fifty years ago, have all been invited to attend
with the survivors of General George Rogers Clark's army of 1782,
who purpose the celebration of a western anniversary, according to
their promise made on the ground the fourth day of November in that
year. Those also who were engaged in like service subsequently, and
in the late war, have been invited to attend and join with us in the
celebration on the said fourth of November, at old Fort Washington,
now Cincinnati. I propose that we meet at Covington, Kentucky, on
the third, the fourth being Sabbath, to attend divine service, on Mon-
day meet our friends on the ground where the old fort stood, and then
take a final adieu, to meet no more until we shall all meet in a world of
spirits.
Fellow-citizens of the West! This is a meeting well worthy your
very serious consideration. The few survivors of that race who are now
standing on the verge of the grave, view with anxious concern the wel-
fare of their common country, for which they fought against British
oppression and savage cruelty to secure to you, our posterity, the bles-
sings of liberty, religion, and law. We will meet and we will tell you
what we have suffered to secure to you these inestimable privileges. We
will meet, and, if you will listen, we will admonish you "face to face,"
to be as faithful as we have been, to transmit those blessings unim-
paired to your posterity; that America may long, and we trust forever,
remain a free, sovereign, independent, and happy country. We look to
bur fellow-citizens in Kentucky and Ohio, near the place of meeting, to
make provision for their old fathers of the West. We look to our
patriot captains of our steamboats, and patriotic stage contractors and
companies, and our generous innkeepers, to make provision for the
going and returning to Cincinnati, from all parts of the West. We
know that they will deem it an honor to accommodate the gray-headed
veterans of the West, who go to meet their companions for the last
time; for this may be the only opportunity they will ever have to serve
their old fathers, the pioneers and veterans of the West.
Fellow-citizens ! Being one of the first, after Colonel Daniel Boone,
who aided in the conquest of Kentucky and the West, I am called upon
to address you. My heart melts on such an occasion. I look forward
to the contemplated meeting with melancholy pleasure. It has caused
tears to flow in copious showers. I wish to see once more, before I
die, my few surviving friends. My solemn promise, made fifty years
ago, binds me to meet them. I ask not for myself ; but you may find
in our assembly some who have never received any pay or pension, who
have sustained the cause of their country equal to any other service,
who in the decline of life are poor. Then, you prosperous sons of the
West, forget not those old and gray-headed veterans on this occasion.
Let them return to their families with some little manifestation of your
kindness to cheer their hearts. I add my prayer. May kind Heaven
grant us a clear sky, fair and pleasant weather, a. safe journey, and a
happy meeting, and smile upon us and our families, and bless us and
our nation on the approaching occasion.
Simon Kenton.
Urbana, Ohio, 1832.
This city was visited this year by Colonel Thomas
Hamilton, author of Cyril Thornton and other popular
novels of that day, who made the following notes upon
Cincinnati in his anonymous and agreeable work upon
The Men and Manners of America :
In two days we reached Cincinnati, a town of nearly thirty thousand
inhabitants, finely situated on a slope ascending from the river. The
streets and buildings are handsome, and certainly far superior to what
might be expected in a situation six hundred miles from the sea and
standing on ground which, till lately, was considered the extreme limit
of civilization. It is, apparently, a place of considerable trade. The
quay was covered with articles of traffic; and there are a thousand indi-
cations of activity and business which strike the senses of a traveller, but
which he would find it difficult to describe. Having nothing better to do,
I took a stroll about the town, and its first favorable impression was not
diminished by closer inspection. Many of the streets would have been
considered handsome in New York or Philadelphia; and, in the private
dwellings, considerable attention had been paid to external decoration.
The most remarkable object in Cincinnati, however, is a large Graeco-
Moresco-Gothic-Chinese-looking building, an architectural compila-
tion of prettiness of all sorts, the effect of which is eminently gro-
tesque. Our attention was immediately arrested by this extraordinary
apparition, which could scarcely have been more out of place had it
been tossed on the earth by some volcano in the moon. While we
stood there, complimenting the gorgeousness of its effect and specu-
lating "what aspect bore the man" to whom the inhabitants of these
central regions could have been indebted for so brilliant and fantastic
an outrage on all acknowledged principles of taste, a very pretty and
pleasant-looking girl came out and invited us to enter. We accord-
ingly did so, and found everything in the interior of the building had
been finished on a scale quite in harmony with its external magnifi-
cence.
This was the Trollopean Bazaar, of course, which re-
ceived many similar notices from travellers, especially
foreigners.
^ EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE.
C Population of thev-city, twenty-seven thousand six
hundred and forty-five.) Votes, three thousand nine
hundred and ninety-five; New buildings, three hundred
and twenty-one — two hundred brick, one hundred and
twenty-one frame.
The cholera, as before stated, continued into this year.
.Its first re-appearance was about the middle of April.
The most destructive month was July, when one hun-
dred and seventy-six died. The total mortality from this
visitation of the pestilence, from September, 1832, to
September, 1833, inclusive, was eight hundred and thir-
teen. The average deaths per day this year were far less
than in 1832, but the disease staid four times as long, or
nearly six months.
June 26th, the powder-mill owned by David D. Wade
exploded, killing six persons.
On the eighth of August died Dr. James M. Stough-
ton, one of the pioneer physicians.
December 26th, that being then supposed to be the
right anniversary (the forty-fifth) of the landing of the
Losantiville pioneers, the occasion was celebrated by a
large party of natives of Ohio — chiefly, of course, young
men, with many invited guests. Major Daniel Gano
was president of the affair ; William R. Morris, first vice-
president; Henry E. Spencer, second vice-president;
Moses Symmes, third vice-president. The address was
delivered by Joseph Longworth, esq. ; poems were re-
cited by Peyton- S. Symmes and Charles D. Drake,
afterwards United States Senator from Missouri; and the
chaplains were the Revs. J. B. Firiley and William Burke.
The committee of arrangements included a number of
prominent young Queen Citizens of that day: George
Williamson, William R. Morris, L. M. Gwynne, J. M.
Foote, Alfred S. Reeder, G. W. Sinks, Joseph Long-
worth, Daniel Gano, Henry E. Spencer, M. N. McLean,
James C. Hall, George W. Burnet, R. A. Whetstone, and
W. M. Corry. The banquet was given in the Commer-
cial Exchange, on the river bank, upon the site of the
first cabin built in Losantiville. The dinner was pre-
pared almost exclusively from native productions, and
84
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
only wine produced in the vicinity was imbibed. This
was presented by Nicholas Longworth, in honor of the
old pioneers and their descendants. Among the unique
viands on the table was a roast composed of two uncom-
monly fat raccoons. Responses to toasts were made by
James C. Ludlow, son of Colonel Israel Ludlow; by
Generals Harrison and Findlay, Majors Gano and Symmes,
Judge Goodenow, Nicholas Longworth, and Samuel
J. Browne, the latter then the oldest Englishman in the
State. A part of General Harrison's address will be
found in the military chapter, in the first division of this
book
Another foreigner of some note, Mr. Godfrey T. Vigne,
visited the city in July, and thus recorded his impressions
of it in his book on Six Months in America:
In appearance it differs from most of the larger towns in the United
States, on account of the great improvement that has taken place in
the color of the houses, which, instead of being of the usual bright
staring red, are frequently of a white gray or a yellowish tint, and dis-
play a great deal of taste and just ornament. The public buildings are
not large, but very neat and classical; I admired the Second Presby-
terian church, which is a very pretty specimen of the Doric. The
streets are handsome and the shops have a very fashionable air.
The principal trade of Cincinnati is in provisions. Immense quan-
tities of corn and grain are sent down the Ohio and the Mississippi to
New Orleans. Part of it is consumed by the sugar planters, who are
supposed to grow no corn, and part is sent coastwise to Mobile, or ex-
ported to Havana and the West Indies generally.
Cincinnati has displayed more wisdom than her opposite neighbor in
Kentucky. A speculative system of banking was carried on about the
same time, and was attended with the same results as those I have be-
fore noticed when speaking of that State. Credit was not to be
obtained, commerce was at an end, and grass was growing in the
streets of Cincinnati. But the judicature, with equal justice and de-
termination, immediately enforced by its decisions the resumption of
cash payments. Many of the leading families in the place were, of
course, ruined, and at present there are not above five or six persons in
Cincinnati who have been able to regain their former eminence as men
of business. But it was a sacrifice of individuals for the good of the
community, and fortune only deserted the speculators in order to at-
tend upon the capitalists, who quickly made their appearance from the
Eastern States, and have raised the city to its present pitch of prosper-
ity.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR.
Votes this year in the city, four thousand and seven;
nag. buildings, three hundred.
(The cholera renewed its appearance, but less violently
trW in 1833. It prevailed to some extent, however,
through all the warm season, to the sad depression of
business and social affairs. Everything, in fact, was
stagnant It is said that the town had never before ap-
peared so dull and apparently lifeless and inert as at the
close of this summer. Property was sacrificed at low
rates, and business was at times almosr at a standstill. It
was the last year of the visitation, however, until 1849,
fifteen years afterwards. )
The trustees of the Lane seminary had this year a
serious difference of opinion with a number of their anti-
slavery students, which resulted in a formidable secession
from the school and an appeal to the public. A fuller
account will be given in our -historical sketch of that
institution.
Cincinnati had some visitors of unusual interest this
year. One who is still remembered tenderly and affec-
tionately by the older residents, who were young men at
the time, was Thomas S. Grimke, a prominent member
of the bar of Charleston, South Carolina, who came
upon invitation to deliver the annual oration before the
literary societies of Miami university, Oxford. While in
Cincinnati he addressed the college of teachers, a literary
society called the Inquisition, and the Temperance soci-
ety, always speaking wisely and well, and sometimes ris-
ing into rare eloquence. He was here only a single
week, yet in that time won universal recognition, love,
and reverence, and was overwhelmed with social atten-
tions. Remaining in Ohio a few weeks longer, he was
overtaken by death while visiting in Madison county,
October 12, 1834, at the age of forty-eight years; and
with him expired, as many believed, the most brilliant
intellectual light in the southern States.
Late this year came another American of genius,
Charles Fenno Hoffman, author of that musical drinking
song so much parodied by the temperance societies —
Sparkling and bright in its liquid light,
Is the wine our goblets gleam in;
With hue as red as the rosy bed
The bee delights to dream in —
but unhappily during most of the last half-century an in-
mate of an insane asylum in Pennsylvania. Some of his
delightful paragraphs will be found under other heads in
this book. One only is quoted here :
The population of the place is about thirty thousand. Among
them you may see very few but what look comfortable and contented,
though the town does not wear the brisk and busy air observable at
Louisville. Transportation is so easy along the great western waters,
that you see no lounging poor people about the large town, as when
business languishes in one place and it is difficult to find occupation,
they are off at once to another, and shift their quarters whither the
readiest means of living invite them. What would most strike you in
the streets of Cincinnati would be the number of pretty faces and stylish
figures one meets in the morning. A walk through Broadway here re-
wards one hardly less than to promenade its New York namesake. I
have had more than one opportunity of seeing these western beauties
by candle-light ; and the evening display brought no disappointment to
the morning promise. Nothing can be more agreeable than the society
which one meets with in the gay and elegantly furnished drawing-
rooms of Cincinnati. The materials being from every State in the
Union, there is a total want of caste, a complete absence of settishness
(if I may use the word). If there be any characteristic that might jar
upon your taste and habits, it is, perhaps, a want of that harmonious
blending of light and shade, that repose both of character and manner,
which, distinguishing the best circles in our Atlantic cities, so often
sinks into insipidity or runs into a ridiculous imitation of the imperti-
nent nonchalance which the pseudo-pictures of English "high life" in
the novels of the day impose upon our simple republicans as the height
of elegance and refinement.
About the same time appeared for a few days upon
Cincinnati streets a shrewd foreign observer and repre-
sentative of the French Government, Michel Chevalier,
whose book of travels in the United States included the
following pleasant notices:
The architectural appearance of Cincinnati is very nearly the same
with that of the new quarters of the English towns. The houses are
generally of brick, most commonly three stories high, with the windows
shining with cleanliness, calculated each for a single family, and regu-
larly placed along well paved and spacious streets, sixty-six feet in
width. Here and there the prevailing uniformity is interrupted by some
more imposing edifice, and there are some houses of hewn stone in very
good taste, real palaces in miniature, with neat porticos, inhabited by
the aristocratical portion of Mrs. Trollope's hog merchants, and several
very pretty mansions surrounded with gardens and terraces. Then
there are the common school-houses, where girls and boys together
learn reading, writing, cyphering, and geography, under the simultane-
ous direction of a master and mistress. In another direction you see a
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
85
small, plain church, without sculpture or painting, without colored
glass or Gothic arches, but snug, well carpeted, and well warmed by
stoves. In Cincinnati, as everywhere else in the United States, there is
a great number of churches.
I met with an incident in Cincinnati, which I shall long remember.
I had observed at the hotel table a man of about the medium height,
stout and muscular, and of about the age of fifty years, yet with the ac-
tive step and lively air of youth. I had been struck with his open and
cheerful expression, the amenity of his manners, and a certain air of
command which appeared through his plain dress. "That is," saidmy
friend, "General Harrison, clerk of the Cincinnati court of common
pleas." "What! General Harrison of the Tippecanoe and the
Thames?" "The same; the ex-general; the conqueror of Tecumseh
and Proctor; the avenger of our disasters on the Raisin and at Detroit;
the ex-governor of the territory of Indiana, the ex-senator in Congress,
the ex-minister of the United States to one of the South American re-
publics. He has grown old in the service of his country, he has passed
twenty years of his life in those fierce wars with the Indians, in which
there was less glory to be won, but more dangers to be encountered,
than at Rivoli and Austerlitz. He is now poor, with a numerous family,
neglected by the Federal Government, although yet vigorous, because
he has the independence to think for himself. As the opposition is in
the majority here, his friends have bethought themselves of coming to
his relief by removing the clerk of the court of common pleas, who was
a. Jackson man, and giving him the place, which is a lucrative one, as a
sort of retiring pension. His friends in the east talk of making him
President of the United States. Meanwhile we have made him clerk
of an inferior court. " After a pause my informant added, "at this
wretched table you may see another candidate for the Presidency, who
seems to have a better chance than General Harrison; it is Mr. Mc-
Lean, now one of the judges of the supreme court of the United
States."
The town was also visited, in the course of the year,
by two clerical gentlemen from abroad, delegates from
the British Congregational Union — the Rev. Drs. An-
drew Reed and James Matheson, on a tour in behalf of
Protestant religion, which they afterwards described in A
Narration of the Visit to the American Churches. We
extract the following concerning Cincinnati :
There is a great spirit of enterprise in this town; and, with an ardent
pursuit of business, there is a desire for domestic comfort and a thirst
for scientific improvement, not equaled in such circumstances. They
have libraries and good reading societies; they have lectures on art and
science, which are well attended. They sustain a "scientific quarterly"
and a "monthly magazine, " with a circulation of four thousand; and
they have newspapers without end. Education is general here; the
young people, and even the children, appear to appreciate it. They
regard it as the certain and necessary means of advancement. I over-
heard two fine children, in the street, remark as follows. The younger
one, about nine years old, speaking of her sister, said, with concern,
"Do you know, Caroline says she will not go to school any more?"
"Silly girl!" replied the elder, about thirteen; " she will live to repent
of that !" It must be admitted that this is a very wholesome state of
feeling.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE.
Population, thirty-one thousand. New buildings, three
hundred and forty. Bills of mortality, nine hundred and
twenty-six, or one in thirty-four, of the population.
s The cholera did not return this year, and as soon as
it was reasonably certain that the scourge had departed,
business and public and social affairs in Cincinnati awak-
ened to more vigorous life than ever. Mr. Mansfield
says, in the Drake Biography :
fh season of extraordinary activity ensued. The mind sprang up
elastic from the pressure, and all was accomplished that mind could do.
Enterprise, business, growth, the leality of active energy, and the ide-
ality of a growing and prosperous future, sprang up, as the conse-
quence of an elastic and invigorated public mind. The general trade
of the country had been safe and profitable — hence there was little tim-
idity to strengthen prudence or restrain extravagance. In the east
commenced that series of enormous speculations whose centre was at
New York, and which, in some respects, has never been surpassed in
this country./ It spread to the west, but prevailed comparatively little
at Cincinnati. The speculations here were on a small scale, and it is
doubtful whether they did more than give a necessary and healthful
excitement to the business community, which had so long been in a
dull, quiescent state. X^ertain it is, that Cincinnati now owes half her
growth and prosperity toVplans of public works and usefulness then
formed and undertaken. J
(The public works named by Mr. Mansfield as among
the local projects of this year were the great Southern
railroad route to Charleston; the Cincinnati & St. Louis
railroad, by Lawrenceburgh ; the Little Miami railroad,
which was chartered the next March; the Cincinnati, Co-
lumbus, & Cleveland railway, also chartered the next
year; the Mad River & Lake Erie, and Covington &
Lexington railroads; and the Whitewater canal. All
these works, though not in all cases under these names,
were afterwards built.i
April 4th, a grand celebration was held at the First
Presbyterian church, of the forty seventh anniversary of
the settlement of Ohio, where William M. Corry pro-
nounced one of his finest orations. The dinner was at
the Commercial Exchange, and was principally from the
products of Ohio, with no wine or ardent spirits what-
ever.
On the eighteenth of the same month, the Young
Men's Mercantile library association was founded. Its
history will be duly told elsewhere. Forty-four years af-
terwards Mr. John W. Ellis, of New York, one of the
illustrious forty-five who founded this noble institution,
wrote a letter at some length to Mr. Newton, the libra-
rian, containing reminiscences of 1835 which will bear
transcription here:
It must be borne in mind that Cincinnati at that period, in 1835, com-
pared with the present Cincinnati, was a very insignificant place in re-
spect to wealth, population, business, and everything which constitutes
a modern city. The population then was less than forty thousand. Its
wholesale business was done entirely by the Ohio river, and by the
canal as far north as Dayton; but for the interior trade almost entirely
by wagons. For the size of the place, it had a respectable wholesale
business, extending in a small way to the upper and lower Mississippi,
along the Ohio, from its mouth as far east as what is now West Vir-
ginia; but a large proportion of the business with the interior in dry
goods, groceries, and the other numerous wants of an interior com-
munity was supplied by wagons, which brought in their products and
carried out merchandise. There were no railroads whatever at that
period in the west. The grocery trade was supplied entirely by steam-
boats from New Orleans. Lighter goods were wagoned by the Na-
tional road, over the Alleghany mountains, to Wheeling or Pittsburgh,
and thence by steamboat down the river. When the water in the upper
Ohio was low, these goods were brought from New York by the Hud-
son river and Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by lake and Ohio canal to
Portsmouth, and thence down the river. All these means of convey-
ance will seem now to the active young men 0$ Cincinnati as very prim-
itive.
Nearly all the retail business of the city was done on Main street,
from Third street to Sixth street; the wholesale business almost entirely
on the lower end of Main street and on Front street facing the river.
Pearl street had just been opened, but extended no further west than
Walnut street, and a few wholesale stores had begun on that square.
Fourth, Walnut, Vine, and other streets, now filled with an active busi-
ness, were then the seat of residences, nearly all built with detached
houses, surrounded with shrubbery, and the streets lined with trees.
Central avenue, then Western row, and the Miami canal on the north,
were the boundaries of population.
An article contributed by B. D. (Benjamin Drake?) to
the Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal,
also helps to the understanding of Cincinnati this year.
More than ordinary attention was given to the Southern
86
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
railroad project, as was seen in our chapter on railroads.
The manufactures of the year were estimated at five
millions. With Newport and Corrington, the population
was thirty-five thousand. Exports were estimated at six
millions or more. There were fifty stages and sixty mails
a week; the steamboat arrivals were two thousand two
hundred and thirty-seven; the imports included ninety
thousand barrels of flour and fifty-five thousand of whiskey.
The public improvements in hand were the extension of the
Miami canal from Dayton to the Maumee bay, near
Toledo, a part to be completed early the next summer; the
macadamized turnpike from Chillicothe to Cincinnati;
extensions of the Cincinnati, Columbia, and Wooster,
and the Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Springfield turnpikes;
the Cincinnati and Harrison turnpike, to be finished
early in 1836, and extend to Brookville, Indiana; the
Whitewater canal, the Little Miami railroad, etc.
Many of the houses erected this year would do credit
to any city in the Union. A number of warehouses were
put up; also St. Paul's church, two banking-houses on
Third street, and ten or twelve large, commodious, and for
the time elegant school buildings, "contributing in a
high degree to the advancement of our beautiful city,"
says Mr. B. D. A population of one hundred thousand
was predicted by 1850 — which prophecy, glowing as it
might have seemed, was exceeded by nearly sixteen thou-
sand. Real estate is mentioned by B. D. as lower in
price, in Cincinnati and its Kentucky suburbs, than in
any other city of the Union having population, business,
and permanent local advantages of equal magnitude.
The Ohio Anti-Slavery society was formed this year,
with headquarters in Cincinnati, and began the issue of
a weekly paper, of which we shall hear more in 1836.
By 1840 the society was employing nine travelling agents
and lecturers, and had become a great power in political
agitation.
December nth, John W. Cowan was hanged in Barr's
woods, near the spot where the Atlantic & Great Western
railway depot was afterwards situated, for the brutal mur-
der of his wife and two children on Smith street.
In the summer of this year the city was honored with
a visit from the renowned English authoress and thinker,
Miss Harriet Martineau. She spent some time here;
and in her subsequent book of Retrospect of Western
Travel gave to the city the ablest chapter, in the judg-
ment of the present writer, that has ever been written
upon it. We make room for a few short extracts :
»
There is ample room on the platform for a city as large as Philadelphia,
without encroaching at all on the hillsides. The inhabitants are already
consulting as to where the capitol shall stand whenever the nation shall
decree the removal of the general government beyond the mountains.
If it were not for the noble building at Washington, this removal would
probably take place soon, perhaps after the removal of the great south-
ern railroad. It seems rather absurd to call senators and representatives
to Washington from Missouri and Louisiana, while there is a place on
the great rivers which would save them half the journey, and suit almost
everybody else just as well, and many much better. The peril to health
at Washington in the winter season is great, and the mild and equable
temperature of Cincinnati is an important circumstance in the case.
From this, the Montgomery road, there is a view of the city and sur-
rounding country which defies description. It was of that melting
beauty which dims the eyes and fills the heart — that magical combina-
tion of all elements— of hill, wood, lawn, river, with a picturesque city
steeped in evening sunshine, the impression of which can never be lost
nor communicated. We ran up a knoll and stood under a clump of
bushes to gaze; and went down, and returned again and again, with
the feeling that if we lived upon the spot we could nevermore see it look
so beautiful.
We soon entered a somewhat different scene, passing the slaughter-
houses on Deer creek, the place where more thousands of hogs in a
year than I dare to specify, are destined to breathe their last. Deer
creek, pretty as its name is, is little more than the channel through
which their blood runs away. The division of labor is brought to as
much perfection in these slaughter-houses as in the pin manufactories
of Birmingham. So I was told. Of course I did not verify the state-
ment by attending the process.
A volume might presently be filled with descriptions of our drives
about the environs of Cincinnati. There are innumerable points of view
whence the city, with its masses of buildings and its spires, may be seen
shining through the limpid atmosphere, like a cloud-city in the evening
sky. There are many spots where it is a relief to lose the river from
the view, and to be shut in among the brilliant green hills, which are
more than can be numbered. But there is one drive which I almost
wonder the inhabitants do not take every summer day, to the Little
Miami bottoms. We continued eastward along the bank of the river
for seven miles, the whole scenery of which is beautiful; but the unfor-
gotten spot was the level about the mouth of the Little Miami river,
the richest of plains or level valleys, studded with farmhouses, enlivened
with clearings, and kept primitive in appearance by the masses of dark
forest which filled up all the unoccupied spaces. Upon this scene we
looked down from a great height, a Niphates of the New World. On
entering a little pass between two grassy hills, crested with wood, we
were desired to alight. I ran up the ascent to the right, and was start-
led at finding myself on the top of a preeipice. Far beneath me ran
the Little Miami, with a narrow, white, pebble strand, arrow-like trees
springing over from the brink of the precipice, and the long evening
shadows making the current as black as night, while the green, up to
the very lips of the ravine, was of the sunniest, in the last flood of
western light. For more reasons than one I should prefer Cincinnati as
residence to any other large city of the United States. Of these rea-
sons not the least would be that the "Queen of the West" is enthroned
in a region of wonderful and inexhaustible beauty.
Another English traveller, the Honorable Charles Au-
gustus Murray, was also here this year, and made the fol-
lowing notice in his Travels in North America :
On the last day of spring I arrived at Cincinnati, that precocious
daughter of the west, that seems to have sprung, like the fabled goddess
of war and wisdom, into existence in the full panoply of manufacturing
and commercial armor.
I have been in company with ten or twelve of the resident families,
and have not seen one single instance of rudeness, vulgarity, or incivil-
ity ; while the shortness of the invitations and absence of constraint and
display render the society more agreeable, in some respects, than that
of more fashionable cities. If the proposition stated is merely this, "that
the manners of Cincinnati are not so polished as those of the best circles
of London, Paris, or Berlin; that her business, whether culinary or dis-
played in carriages, houses, or amusements, are also of a lower caste,"
I suppose none would be so absurd as to deny it. I hope few would be
weak enough gravely to inform the world of so self-evident a truth ; but
I will, without fear of contradiction, assert that the history of the world
does not produce a parallel to Cincinnati in rapid growth of wealth and
population. Of all the cities that have been founded by mighty sover-
eigns or na:ions, with an express view to their becoming the capitals of
empires, there is not one that, in twenty-seven [forty-seven] years from
its foundation, could show such a mass of manufacture, enterprise,
population, wealth, and social comfort, as that of which I have given a
short and imperfect outline in the last two or three pages, and which
owes its magnitude to no adscititious favor or encouragement, but to
the judgment with which the situation was chosen, and to the admirable
use which its inhabitants have made thereof.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTV-SIX.
Population estimated at thirty-eight thousand — proba-
bly somewhat too large. Votes four thousand three hun-
dred and thirty-five. New buildings, three hundred and
sixty-five. Commerce, eight million one hundred thou-
sand dollars. The public schools, the mercantile library,
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
87
and the leading public charities, had well begun their or-
ganic existence. A general committee upon internal im-
provements was appointed at a public meeting of citizens,
which proved a very useful committee. Upon it were
such men as Micajah T. and John S. Williams, E. D.
Mansfield, Dr. Daniel Drake, Robert Buchanan, John C.
Wright, George Graham, and Alexander McGrew. Mor-
tality of the year, nine hundred and twenty-eight, or about
one in forty.
This, pretty nearly the middle yefur'of Cincinnati's
history, was a tolerably eventful one/ On the eleventh
of April a mob rose against the colored people, and set
fire to a number of their houses in a locality then known
as "the swamp,'' just below Western Row, now Central
avenue, at the then foot of West Sixth street.) Another
and more serious emeute occurred in July, which resulted
in the destruction of the Philanthropist newspaper office.
This paper had been started by Mr. Birney in 1834 at
New Richmond, Clermont county, where it had been
repeatedly threatened, but never mobbed ; and was re-
moved to Cincinnati, on the encouragement of friends
of the anti-slavery cause there, about three months before
its destruction. A meeting was held in July, composed
largely from the most respectable classes in the city,
largely young men, at which resolutions were passed that
no abolition paper should be published or distributed in
the town. On the fourteenth of that month, the publi-
cation of the Philanthropist still continuing, the printing
office was violently entered by a mob, and the press and
materials, which were the property of Mr A. Pugh, the
printer, afterwards of the Chronicle, were defaced, "pied,'
and partially destroyed. Even this did not daunt the
fearless editor, and the publication went on. On the
twenty-third a great meeting of citizens was held at the
Lower Market, "to declare whether they will permit the
publication or distribution of abolition papers in this
city." A committee was appointed, which requested the
executive committee of the anti-slavery society to stop
the publication. They ' refused; when the committee
published the correspondence, adding remarks which
deprecated a resort to violence. Nevertheless, on Satur-
day night, July 30th, a large party, composed, like the
aforesaid meeting, mainly from the more respectable
classes in the city and of young men, gathered on the
corner of Main and Seventh streets, held a short consul-
tation, then marched down to the office, only two squares
distant, effected an entrance and again seized the press
and materials, but this time carried them out in part,
scattered the type in the street, smashed the press, and
completely dismantled the office. Part of the press was
dragged down Main street and thrown in the river. The
mob even went to Pugh's house to find other materials
supposed to be there; but found none, and offered no
violence. The dwellings of Birney, Donaldson, and
other prominent abolitionists were rather noisily visited,
but no mischief done to them. It then returned to Main
street, proposing to pile the remaining contents of the
office in the street ; but was dissuaded, as neighboring
buildings might be fired by the blaze. Retiring up Main
street, a proposition was made to mob the office of the
Gazette, whose editor, Mr. Charles Hammond, had not
altogether pleased the malcontents by his course; but
better counsels prevailed. An attack was made on the
residences of some of the blacks in Church alley; but
two guns were fired at the assailants, and they withdrew
in disorder. A rally and second charge were made after
a time, when the houses were found abandoned by the
negroes, were entered and their contents destroyed.
Some weeks after, upon the return of E. D. Mansfield
from the Knoxville railroad convention, he and Mr.
Hammond, Salmon P. Chase, and a few others, deter-
mined to hold an afternoon meeting at the coutt house, to
consider the outrage. It was crowded; sundry speeches
were made; a large committee was appointed to report
resolutions; but, after all, nothing was done except to
condemn mobs in general terms, regret the recent occur-
rence, and commend the plan of the American Coloniza-
tion society as "the only method of getting clear of slav-
ery." After the death, in September, 1880, of the Hon.
W'illiam M. Cony, a tribute was paid to his memory in
the Cincinnati Commercial, by ex-Governor Charles An-
derson. In it occurred the following paragraph, which
we take pleasure in embalming for posterity in the pages
of this history:
All Cincinnati was aroused in 1836 into a wild ferocity towards the
great Abolitionist, James G. Birney, esq. He was a scholar, orator,
gentleman, Christian, and philanthropist, if ever these sentiments did
centre in any one man. But his paper, published from the corner of
Main and Fifth streets, was universally esteemed and denounced as a
most pestilent nuisance to the city, the State, and the Nation. And
doubtless, in the morbid and reckless state of the public feeling in the
southern States, such an issue from Cincinnati did operate injuriously
against the business and property of the citizens, which was based
mainly upon their southern trade. A public meeting, was therefore held
in the court house for the denunciation, warning, and, if necessary,
the expulsion of so great a culprit. Every man of influence or property
in Cincinnati, save one alone, was directly or indirectly a party to this
outrage upon free thought, free speech and a free press. That single
man was William M. Corry. He alone, amidst the general obloquy
and indignation, bared his biave breast to this popular tempest of the
combined plutocracy and mobocracy of the whole city, and ably de-
fended Mr. Birney's rights. It was in vain. His office was publicly
pillaged. His press was smashed into splinters. His types were sown
broadcast from the market place through Main street and into the Ohio
river. He was driven into exile to Buffalo.
May 30th occurred the first parade of the Cincinnati
Gray's; and on the fourteenth of June a volunteer com-
pany under Captain James Allen, editor of the Cincinnati
Republican, departed to join General Houston's army and
aid in the struggle for Texan independence. On the sixth
of March the subscription books for the Little Miami
railroad were opened; and on the twentieth of February
the city, also Newport and Covington, were illuminated
in honor of the projected Cincinnati & Charleston rail-
road, which was soon temporarily defeated, by the refusal
of the Kentucky legislature to grant right of way through
the State.
On the thirteenth of January began the memorable de-
bate between the Rev. Alexander Campbell and Bishop
Purcell, which was afterwards published and extensively
circulated. February 23d died Peter Williams, of Delhi,
the pioneer mail carrier from Cincinnati through the
wildernesses. General Jackson visited the city March
1 8th, and was received with great acclamation by admir-
88
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
ing throngs. William Barr, a very prominent old resident,
died March 21st. On the 24th of that month the city
debt amounted to two hundred and forty thousand dol-
lars.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN.
New buildings this year, three hnndred and five, not-
withstanding it was a year of great financial disaster,
There were five thousand nine hundred and eighty-one
house in the city. Mr. E. D. Mansfield wrote long sub-
sequently: "Just after the convention of 1837, say up to
1848, the growth of Cincinnati continued with great ra-
pidity. Strange as it may seem, the constant depression
and want of money did not impede building; on the con-
trary, it aided Cincinnati. . . For several years
the city grew rapidly." The deaths this year numbered
nine hundred and sixty-eight, or about one in thirty-nine.
On the third of May the first loan for local improve-
ments was voted by the city, to the amount of six hun-
dred thousand dollars.
January 6th, John Washburn was hanged upon a scaf-
fold erected at the junction of the Walnut Hills and
Reading roads, for the murder upon the same spot, for
money, of an inoffensive old man named Beaver. After-
wards, June 3rd, Hoover and Davis were executed for
complicity in the same murder; and Byron Cooley, on
the twenty-fifth of November, for killing John Rambo.
It was a great year for capital punishments.
October 28th, a monument to the memory of Wiliiam
M. Millan was dedicated by Nova Caesarea Harmony
Lodge No. 2, upon an eminence on the farm of William
M. Corry, esq., then two and a quarter miles from Cin-
cinnati, near the Reading turnpike, in a graveyard de-
signated by Mr. McMillan before his death. A eulogy
was pronounced by Mr. Corry, which was published in
pamphlet form, and widely complimented. The monu-
ment was afterwards removed to Spring Grove cemetery,
where it now stands. It is of grey freestone, in the
psuendo-Doric order, and surmounted by a Grecian urn.
Some observations made upon Cincinnati this year by
a garrulous American traveller, Professor Frederick Hall,
M.D., in his Letters from the East and from the West, may
fittingly be reproduced here:
Perhaps, I might give you a juster idea of the appearance of Cin-
cinnati by comparison. You cannot have forgotten how Genoa ap-
peared to us, as seen from the point where our steamboat anchored or '
from that where the American ship-of-war, the Potomac, was stationed,
farther out in the bay. The view was enrapturing. Our eyes were
riveted to it. We had never seen its parallel. Rightly do the Italians,
thought we, style Genoa 'La Superba.' Here, we could not help
imagining, Vespasian took from Nature the model of his Colosseum
which he commenced at Rome. The arena of his, often saturated
with human blood, uselessly, wickedly shed, represents this narrow,
flat plain, overspread with marble houses and palaces and churches,
and all the pomp and bustle of a populous and magnificent town.
The sloping galleries of the Roman Colosseum are a miniature rep-
resentation of the lofty and ragged Appenines which form the semi-
circular back-grounds of the city, and on which are perched many a
sumptuous mansion, many a terraced garden, many an humble cottage,
and many a moss-clad ruin.
Were you here, I would conduct you across the Ohio river in the
convenient steam ferry-boat, lead you to a spot half a mile from the
water's edge, and there ask you to take a deliberate survey ot Cincin-
nati and of the country back of it. You would, I think, at once say
that it bears no slight resemblance to the native city of Columbus. The
high lands here, though in some degree similar, are less lofty, less
rocky, and exhibit fewer human habitations; but they are far richer,
their forms vastly more variegated and more beautiful. You do not,
it is true, here see anything like the towering light-house of Genoa, or
the Cathedral of Lorenzo, or- the ' palazzo ducal;' nor are you to ex-
pect it. Consider the difference in the ages of the two cities. The one
is an infant at the breast ; the other wears bleached locks. The one is
not yet fifty years old; the other is two thousand. But, old as she is,
her population does not exceed eighty-five thousand. That of Cincin-
nati has already attained to near half of that number; and what will it
be two thousand years hence, if it continues to increase, as it has done
during the last quarter of a century? Let fancy stretch away into
futurity, and view her then. She will see a little world of men — not a
New York— not a Glasgow— but a London. Since the year 1812 her
population has received an augmentation of more than twenty-six
thousand souls. Should she continue to increase in the same ratio for
two thousand years to come, what will be her numbers? What hill will
not be crowded with houses? What valley will not pe crowded with
them?
Another author-traveller of 1837 to the Queen City
was no less a notable of that day than the great writer
of sea-tales, Captain Francis Marryat. In his Diary of
the American Journey, subsequently published, he thus
notes matters and things here:
Arrived at Cincinnati. How rapid has been the advance of the
western country! In 1803 deer-skins, at the value of forty cents per
pound, were a legal tender; and, if offered instead of money, could not
be refused — even by a lawyer. Not fifty years ago the woods which
towered where Cincinnati is now built, resounded only to the cry of the
wild animals of the forest or the rifle of the Shawnee Indian; now
Cincinnati contains a population of forty thousand inhabitants. It is a
beautiful, well-built, clean town, reminding you more of Philadelphia
than any other city in the Union. Situated on a hill on the banks of
the Ohio, if is surrounded by a circular phalanx of other hills; so that,
look up and down the streets whichever way you will, your eye reposes
upon verdure and forest-trees in the distance. The streets have a row
of trees on each side, near the curb-stone, and most of the houses have
a small frontage, filled with luxuriant flowering shrubs, of which the
althea Frutix is the most abundant. It is, properly speaking, a Yan-
kee city, the majority of its inhabitants coming from the east; but they
have intermarried and blended with the Kentuckians of the opposite
shore — a circumstance which is advantageous to the character of both.
There are, however, a large number of Dutch and German settlers
here; they say ten thousand. They are not much liked by the Ameri-
cans ; but have great influence, as may be conceived when it is stated
that, when a motion was brought forward in the municipal court for
the city regulations to be printed in German as well as English, it was
lost by one vote only.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT.
New buildings, three hundred and thirty-four. Mortal-
ity, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Votes in
the city, four thousand five hundred and seventy-three.
April 25th, the most terrible accident recorded in the
history of Cincinnati occurred at the Fulton landing,
then just above the city, in the explosion of the new and
beautiful steamer Moselle. An elaborate and most inter-
esting account of this event has been given in the third
edition of the Annals of the West, the publisher of that
work having been an eye-witness of the event. We trans-
cribe the narrative for these pages :
The Moselle was regarded as the very paragon of western steamboats;
she was perfect in form and construction, elegant and super o in all her
equipments, and enjoyed a reputation for speed which admitted of no
rivalship. As an evidence that the latter was not undeserved, it need
only be mentioned that her last trip from St. Louis to Cincinnati, seven
hundred and fifty miles, was performed in two days and sixteen hours—
the quickest trip, by several hours, that had ever been made between the
two places.
On the afternoon of April 25, 1838, between four and five o'clock, the
Moselle left the landing at Cincinnati, bound for St. Louis, with an un-
usually large number of passengers, supposed to be not less than two
hundred and eighty, or, according to some accounts, three hundred. It
was a pleasant afternoon, and all on board probably anticipated a de-
7
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
89
lightful voyage. The Moselle proceeded about a mile up the river to
take on some German emigrants. At this time it was observed by an
experienced engineer on board, that the steam had been raised to an
unusual height, and when the boat stopped for the purpose just men-
tioned, it was reported that one man who was apprehensive of danger
went ashore, after protesting against the injudicious management of the
steam apparatus. Yet the passengers generally were regardless of any
danger that might exist, crowding the boat for the sake of her beauty
and speed, and making safety a secondary consideration.
When the object for which the Moselle had landed was nearly accom-
plished, and the bow of the boat just turned in preparation to move
from the shore, at that instant the explosion took place. The whole of
the vessel forward of the wheels was blown to splinters ; every timber
{as an eye-witness declares), "appeared to be twisted, as trees some-
times are, when struck by lightning." As soon as theaccident occurred,
the boat floated down the stream for about one hundred and fifty to
two hundred yards, where she sunk, leaving the upper part of the cabin
out of the water and the baggage, together with many struggling hu-
man beings, floating on the surface of the river.
It was remarked that the explosion was unprecedented in the history
of steam. Its effect was like that of a mine of gunpowder. All the
boilers, four in number, burst simultaneously ; the deck was blown into
the air, and the human beings who crowded it were doomed to instant
destruction. It was asserted that a man, believed to be a pilot, was
carried, together with the pilot-house, to the Kentcky shore, a distance
of a- quarter of a mile. A fragment of a boiler was carried by the explo-
sion high into the air, and descending perpendicularly about fifty yards
from the boat, it crushed through a strong roof and through the second
floor of a building, lodging finally on the ground floor.
Captain Pernn, master of the Moselle, at the time of the accident
was standing on the deck, above the boiler, in conversation with
another person. He was thrown to a considerable height on the steep
embankment of the river and killed, while his companion was merely
prostrated on the deck, and escaped without injury. Another person
was blown a great distance into the air, and on descending he fell on a
roof with such force that he partially broke through it, and his body
lodged there. Some of the passengers who were in the after-part of the
boat, and who were uninjured by the explosion, jumped overboard.
An eye-witness says that he saw sixty or seventy in the water at one
time, of whom comparatively few reached the shore. There were after-
ward the mutilated remains of nineteen persons buried in one grave.
It happened, unfortunately, that the larger number of the passengers
were collected on the upper deck, to which the balmy air and delicious
weather seemed to invite them, in order to expose them to more certain
destruction. It was understood, too, that the captain of the ill-fated
steamer had expressed his determination to outstrip an opposition boat
which had just started; the people on shore were cheering the Moselle,
in anticipatiou of her success in the race, and the passengers and crew
on the upper deck responded to these acclamations, which were soon
changed to sounds of mourning and distress.
Intelligence of the awful calamity spread rapidly through the city;
thousands rushed to the spot, and the most benevolent aid was prompt-
ly extended to the sufferers, or rather to those within the reach of
human assistance, for the majority had perished. The scene here was
so sad and distressing that no language can depict it with fidelity.
Here lay twenty or thirty mangled and still bleeding corpses, while
many persons were engaged in dragging others of the dead and
wounded from the wreck or the water. "But," says an eye-witness,
"the survivors presented the most touching objects of distress, as their
mental anguish seemed more insupportable than the most intense bod-
ily suffering.''
Death had torn asunder the most tender ties; but the rupture had
been so sudden and violent that none knew certainly who had been
taken or who had been spared. Fathers were distractedly inquiring for
children, children for parents, husbands and wives for each other. One
man had saved a son, but lost a wife and five children. A father,
partially demented by grief, lay with a wounded child on one side, his
dead daughter on the other, and his expiring wife at his feet. One
gentleman sought his wife and children, who were as eagerly seeking
him in the same crowd. They met and were reunited.
A female deck .passenger who had been saved seemed inconsolable for
the loss of her relatives. Her constant exclamations were, "Oh! my
father! my mother! mysisters!" a little boy about five years old, whose
head was much bruised, appeared to be regardless of his wounds, and
cried continually for a lost father, while another lad, a little older, was
weeping for a whole family. One venerable man wept for the loss of
his wife and five children. Another was bereft of his whole family, con-
sisting of nine persons. A touching display of maternal affection was
evinced by a woman, who, on being brought to the shore, clasped her
hands and exclaimed, "Thank God, I am safe!" but instantly recollect-
ing herself, she ejaculated in a voice of piercing agony, "Where is my
child ? " The infant, which had been saved, was brought to her, and
she fainted at the sight of it.
Many of the passengers who entered the boat at Cincinnati had not
registered their names, but the lowest estimated number of persons on
board was two hundred and eighty. Of these eighty-one were known
to be killed, fifty-five were missing and thirteen badly wounded.
On the day after the accident a public meeting was called at Cincinnati,
at which the mayor presided, when the facts of this melancholy occur-
rence were discussed, and among other resolutions passed was one
deprecating the great and increasing carelessness in the navigation of
steam vessels and urging this subject upon the consideration of Con-
gress.
The Moselle was built at Cincinnati, and she reflected great credit
on the mechanical genius of that city, as she was truly a superior boat,
and under more favorable auspices might have been the pride of the
waters for several years. She was new, having been begun the previous
December and finished in March, only a month before the time of her
destruction.
A committee was appointed at the meeting of citizens,
to report upon the causes of the disaster. Dr. Locke,
Jacob Strader, Charles Fox, T. J. Matthews, and J.
Perm, formed the committee. They made a prolonged
and careful examination, and published a report in a
pamphlet of seventy-six pages. It was mainly from the
pen of Dr. Locke, and is a thoroughly scientific exposi-
tion of the subject, much of which has permanent in-
terest and value.
October 20th, a fire occurred on McFarland street,
which destroyed two or three small buildings, arid took
the life of a little son of Mrs. McComas, aged eight
years. The citizens subscribed one thousand two hun-
dred and seventy-nine dollars and sixty-six cents the next
forenoon for the relief of the sufferers. On the twenty-
third there was another fire on Broadway, between Fourth
and Fifth, destroying cabinet and turners' shops, and a
bedstead factory.
The semi-centennial of the settlement of Cincinnati
was celebrated in good style this year, Dr. Daniel Drake
delivering the oration. The invited guests included
many aged Ohio pioneers of 1785-7-9, and other years.
The first fair of the Ohio Mechanics' institute was held
this year and was a gratifying success.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE.
January 3d, the city buys the entire rights and prop-
erty of the Cincinnati Water Works company for three
hundred thousand dollars.
iary 2 2d, Robert Wright lost an arm by an acci-
dent in cannon-firing while giving a salute at the Public.
Landing, in honor of Washington's birthday.
March 1st, occurred the death of Morgan Neville, a
prominent citizen, and formerly receiver at the land
office. On the eighteenth a lad named Winship was
killed in a menagerie exhibiting here, by an uncaged
tiger.
June 10th, the first superior court for the city was
organized, with David K. Este, judge, and Daniel Gano,
clerk.
December 9th, died the well-known pioneer merchant,
Colonel! John Bartle, aged ninety-five. He came to
Losantivillel in December, 1789. General Robert Y.
9°
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Lytle, another and yet more eminent resident of Cincin-
nati, died at New Orleans on the twenty-first of this
month.
A vigorous attempt was made this year to suppress the
liquor-selling coffee-houses by making their licenses
practically prohibitory; but it was evaded by the propri-
etors taking out tavern licenses, which cost but twenty-
five dollars and gave the, recipients one more day in
which to sell liquors.
The population of the city in 1849 was about forty-two
thousand five hundred; number of new buildings, three
hundred and ninety-four — two hundred and eighty brick,
one hundred and fourteen frame. Mortality list, one
thousand two hundred and eighty-two, or one in thirty-
five.
I
CHAPTER XIII.
CINCINNATI'S SIXTH DECADE.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY.
The official census this year exhibited a population for
Cincinnati of forty-six thousand three hundred and thirty-
eight, an increase since 1830 of eighty-five per cent.
The new buildings this year numbered four hundred and
six — brick two hundred and sixty (in the seven wards re-
spectively forty-seven, seventeen, thirty-one, twelve, sev-
enty-six, thirty-three, forty-four), frame one hundred and
forty-six (in the several wards in order, thirteen, one,
fourteen, three, forty-three, eighteen and fifty-four). The
vote of the year was six thousand three hundred and
forty; the mortality bills one thousand three hundred
and twenty-three, of whom ninety-seven were strangers.
They being deducted, the deaths of inhabitants were
only one thousand one hundred and twenty-nine, or one
in thirty-nine of the population.
April 3d, deceased Charles Hammond, a leading ed-
itor, politician and lawyer of the city, and one of the
strongest and most accomplished men the place ever
had. Further notice of him will be made in our chap-
ters on the bar and on journalism.
This was the year of the Harrison campaign, in which,
certainly, Cincinnati, Hamilton county, and all Ohio
took an exceeding interest. The warm season was full
of excitement in the Queen City, and there were great
rejoicings when her favorite son was declared the win-
ner. The state of the campaign in this region and along
the river is amusingly illustrated in the remarks of Mrs.
Steele, an intelligent eastern traveller hereaway this year,
in her Summer Journey in the West:
Sixteen miles below Cincinnati is the residence of General Harrison,
the candidate for the Presidency. It is said he lived in a log cabin; but
it was a neat country dwelling, which, however, I dimly saw by moon-
light. To judge from what we have seen upon the road, General Har-
rison will carry all the votes of the west, for every one seems enthusi-
astic in his favor. Log cabins were erected in every town, and a small
one of wicker-work- stood upon nearly all the steamboats. At the
wood-yards along the rivers it was very common to see-a sign bearing
the words, " Harrison wood," " Whig wood, " or "Tippecanoe wood,"
he having gained a battle at a place of that name. The western States,
indeed, owe him a debt of gratitude; for he may be said to be the
cause, under Providence, of their flourishing condition. He subdued
the Indians, laid the land out in sections, -thus opening a door for set-
tlers, and, in fact, deserves the name given him of "Father of the
West."
The city was also visited this year by the much trav-
elled Englishman and voluminous writer of his travels,
the Rev. J. S. Buckingham, who published in all some
nine volumes of American travel. From several extracts
relating to Cincinnati, which will appear in different
places in this history, we select the following for inser-
tion here :
The private dwellings of Cincinnati are in general quite as large and
commodious as those of the Atlantic cities, with these advantages, that
more of them are built of stone, and much fewer of wood, than in the
older settlements ; a greater number of them have pretty gardens, rich
grass-plats, and ornamental shrubberies and flowers surrounding them,
than in any of the eastern cities; and, though there is not the same os-
tentatious display in the furniture of the private dwellings here, which is
met with at New York especially, every comfort and convenience,
mixed with a sufficient degree of elegance, is found in all the residences
of the upper and middle classes; and it may be doubted whether there
is any city in the Union in which there is a more general diffusion of
competency in means and comfort in enjoyments, than in Cincinnati.
The stores also are large, well filled, and many of them as elegant in ap-
pearance and as well supplied with English and French articles as in
the largest cities on the coast, though somewhat dearer, of course. The
hotels ate numerous and good, and boarding-houses at all prices abun-
dant. The Broadway Hotel, at which we remained, appeared to us
one of the cleanest and most comfortable we had seen west of the Alle-
ghanies.
Mrs. Steele's Diary of a Summer Journey in the West
contains the following:
Cincinnati, July 19th.
As much as we had heard of Cincinnati, we were astounded at its
beauty and extent, and at the solidity of its buildings. It well merits
the name bestowed upon it here — Queen of the West. We have ex-
plored it thoroughly by riding and walking, and pronounce it a wonder-
ful city. . . We spent the morning slowly driving up
and down each street, along the Miami canal, and in the environs of
the city in every direction, and were quite astonished — not because we
had never seen larger and finer cities, but that this should have arisen in
what was so lately a wilderness. Its date, you know, is only thirty
years back [!]. The rows of stores and warehouses ; the extensive and
ornamented dwellings; the thirty churches, many of them very hand-
some, and other public buildings, excited our surprise. Main street is
the principal business mart. While in the centre of this street, we
mark it for a mile ascending the slope upon which the town is built, and
in front it seems interminable; for, the river being low, we do not
observe we are looking across it to the street of the opposite city of
Covington, until a steamboat passing, tells us where the city ends.
Broadway is another main artery of this city — not, however, devoted
to business, but bounded upon each side by rows of handsome dwellings.
Third, Fourth, Seventh, Vine, and many other streets, show private
houses not surpassed by any city we had visited. They are generally ex-
tensive and surrounded by gardens, and almost concealed from view of
the passers by groves of shade-trees and ornamental shrubbery; An
accidental opening among the trees shows you a glimpse of a piazza or
pavilion, where, among groves and gardens, the air may be enjoyed by
the children or ladies of the family.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE.
The publication of the first of Mr. Charles Cist's valuable
series of volumes on Cincinnati occurred this year, and
from it a fully sketched picture of the city at this time may
be made up. The buildings were now largely brick, espe-
cially in the central and business parts. Dwellings and
warehouses were not only greater in number, but "greatly
superior to those previously erected in value, elegance,
and convenience." Its population, numbering about fifty
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
9i
thousand people of all ages, included four hundred and
thirty-four professional men, two thousand two hundred
and twenty-six of the mercantile classes, ten thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six mechanics in seventy-seven
different trades, and one thousand and twenty-five agents,
bar-keepers, hotel-keepers, and the like. The capital
invested in commerce was estimated at five million
two hundred thousand dollars, and in merchandize,
twelve million eight hundred and seventy-seven thou-
sand dollars. There w£re twenty-three lumber-yards,
with one hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars capi-
tal and sales in 1840 amounting to three hundred and
forty-two thousand five hundred dollars. There were
eight banks, with an aggregate capital of more than six
millions. The Miami canal was now in operation to
Piqua, and the extension was completed eighty miles be-
yond Dayton and was making rapid progress toward De-
fiance, at the rapids of the Maumee. For two years it
had paid more than the annual interest upon the debt in-
curred in its construction, which was considered "the
highest evidence of its utility.'' The vast water-power
which it had brought to the city was mostly in use. The
Whitewater canal was nearly finished. An improvement
in the Licking, being made at Kentucky's expense, was
expected to bring benefits to Cincinnati. A steam packet
was to be immediately put on the river. The Little Mi-
ami railroad was completed for about thirty-five miles out,
and more was under contract. Turnpike improvements
had been steadily extended. The Charleston or South-
ern railroad scheme was still held in abeyance by the op-
position of Kentucky, and the depression in the moneyed
world. The exports on the Miami canal had increased
from eight thousand five hundred and seven dollars and
sixty-nine cents in 1828 to seventy-four thousand three
hundred and twenty dollars and ninety-nine cents in
1840. The city had one German and six English daily
papers, with a large number of tri-weeklies, weeklies, and
monthlies. There were forty-six churches, including two
synagogues, and a large number of benevolent and char-
itable societies and institutions, on both public and
private foundations. Science and literature, education,
music, and other of the higher interests, were all em-
bodied in organizations and institutions existing here.
The fire and water service of the city had been greatly
improved. The city had been made a port of entry.
It had now sixty weekly mails, and the revenue of the
post office in 1840 had been forty-nine thousand eight
hundred and fifteen dollars and thirteen cents.
/The city is described by Mr. Cist as still "almost in
tne-eastern extreme of a valley about twelve miles in cir-
cumference, perhaps the most delightful and extensive on
the borders of Ohio." ) With the adjacent parts of Mill
creek and Fulton towmShips, and Newport and Coving-
ton, the total population of Cincinnati and suburbs was
reckoned at sixty thousand. The Germans in the city
now numbered fourteen thousand one hundred and sixty-
three — three thousand six hundred and thirty in the First,
one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven in the Sec-
ond, one thousand nine hundred and twelve in the Third,
nine hundred and ninety-six in the Fourth, four thousand
three hundred and twenty in the Fifth, six hundred and
ninety-five in the Sixth, and one thousanrLfour hundred
and seventy-three in the Seventh ward. (The American
population was fifty-four per cent., German twenty-eight,
British sixteen, French and Italian one,^pd all others
one per per cent, of the entire population/ About six
thousand eight hundred children were being educated in
the public and private schools.
Great improvements were expected — among them not
less than five hundred dwellings and warehouses to go up
during the year, including a larger proportion of ware-
houses than usual. Several blocks and single buildings
for stores were going up in March of this year. The
number of new structures for the twelve months was
afterwards reported at four hundred and sixty-two. The
present St. Peter's cathedral, on the corner of Eighth and
Plum streets, was about erecting, and was finished in
1844. (7*0 ver the Rhine" was developing rapidly, and a
new German Catholic church on Main, beyond the
canal, was to be built shortly. About three-fourths of
the Germans in those days were said to be Roman Cath-
olics. ]
Thff'use of coal for fuel was becoming quite general;
nine hundred and thirty thousand bushels had been sold
the previous year, and a sale of more than two millions
was1 expected for 1841.
[Mr. Cist finally " ventured the prediction that within
one hundred years Cincinnati would be the greatest city
in America, and by the year a. d. 2,000 the greatest city
in the world" jn
During the^early part of this year General Harrison,
the elect of the people, as well as of the Electoral College,
by a tremendous majority, made his way to Washington,
to assume the duties of Chief Magistrate of the Nation.
Judge Joseph Cox, in an address to the Cinciunati Liter-
ary club, February 4, 1871, on General William H. Har-
rison at North Bend, has thus sketched the farewell :
The -scene of his departure was most affecting. Old men who had
shared with him the toils of the campaigns among the Indians, their
wives and children, his old neighbors, the poor, of whom there were
many who had shared his bounty, gathered to witness his departure,
cheering for his triumph while their cheeks were wet with tears. The
boat on which he was to pass up the river lay at the foot of Broadway,
in Cincinnati. The wharves, streets, and every surrounding vessel and
house were filled with spectators. Standing on the deck of the steamer,
with a clear, ringing voice he recalled to the mind of the people that
forty-eight years before he had landed on that spot a poor, unfriended
boy in almost an unbroken wilderness to join his fortunes with theirs,
and that now, by the voice of a majority of the seventeen millions of
people of this free land, he was about to leave them to assume the Chief
Magistracy of the greatest Nation of the earth. He assured them that
he was devoted to the interests of the people, and although this might
be the last time he would look upon them, they would find him in the
future true to the old history of the past. Prophetic vision ! Never-
more was it given to him to look on the faces of those who this day
cheered him on to his high goal. Before visiting Washington, he went
to the old homestead on the James river, and there, in the room of
his mother (then dead many years), composed his inaugural address as
President."
Less than six months had gone, when the old hero
came back, but in his coffin. Acclamations were ex-
changed for sobs and sighs ; tears of joy for tears of
deepest grief. Judge Cox then depicts^ the final scenes :
The funeral services took place at the White House, after which the
92
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
body, accompanied by a large civic and military procession, was taken
to the Congressional burying ground and deposited in the receiving
vault, to await the arrangements of his family. The nation was
shrouded in mourning, and the ensuing sixteenth of May was set apart
as a day of fasting and prayer, upon which, in nearly every town and
city, the people met in honor of the illustrious dead.
In the meantime preparations had been made to inter the remains on
a beautiful hill just west of his home at North Bend, and under the
guidance of committees of Congress and of the principal cities of the
country, they were, in July, 1841, escorted from Washington. Arriving
in Cincinnati, the body lay in state at the house of his son-in-law, Col-
onel W. H. H. Taylor, on the north side of Sixth street, just east of
Lodge, and was visited by thousands of his old friends and fellow citi-
zens. It was then, after suitable religious services, placed on a bier on
the sidewalk, and the citizens and military filed past it. The funeral
procession, under charge of George Graham, esq., still living, then
marched to the river; the corpse was placed on a magnificent catafalque
on board a steamer, which, with two others lashed side by side and
loaded with mourners, slowly, with solemn dirges and tolling belts,
moved to North Bend. Arriving there, a long procession followed the
remains to the summit of the mound, where they were deposited in the
vault, beneath a low-built structure covered with turf. There have they
lain for nearly thirty [now forty] years.
No marble rears its head to mark
The honored hero's dust;
Nor glittering spire, nor cenotaph,
Nor monumental bust.
But on the spot his manhood loved
His aged form's at rest;
And he built his own proud monument
Within a nation's breast.
June 1 6th an ordinance was passed granting to James
F. Conover and J. H. Caldwell the right to supply gas to
the_city for the period of twenty-five years.
In September another anti-negro mob made a terrible
disturbance, originating in an affray at the corner of
Broadway and Sixth street, between some Irish and a
party of negroes, several nights before. There were
thenceforth fights every night, in that part of the city, be-
tween the whites and the blacks, until early Friday even-
ing, when a mob, composed largely of river-men and
roughs from Kentucky, gathered at the Fifth street mar-
ket-space, now the Esplanade, and marched thence to a
negro confectioner's shop on Broadway, next the syna-
gogue, where they smashed the front of it, but were
presently met and sharply engaged by the negroes with
fire-arms. Many were wounded on both sides. The
mob was addressed by the mayor and Mr. John H. Piatt,
but without avail. About one o'clock that night the mob
gained possession of a six-pound cannon from some
place near the river, loaded it with boiler punchings and
other missiles, took it to the negro quarter, and fired it
several times, but without doing much damage. It was
stationed on Broadway, and fired down Sixth street.
Many of the negroes became considerably alarmed at
this demonstration, and incontinently fled to the hills.
In about an hour the military, which had been called out
by the mayor, appeared on the scene and kept the mob
at bay. Through the next day, however, and until three
o'clock Sunday morning, the mob held its front and de-
fied its opponents. The citizens held a meeting Satur-
day morning, and passed facing-both-ways resolutions
against mobs and Abolitionists. The city council held a
special meeting to consider the situation; and the ne-
groes had another meeting in a church, where they ex-
pressed their willingness to abide by the laws of 1807 —
give bonds as required by that act, or leave the State.
About three in the afternoon the mayor, marshal, po-
lice, and others went to the theatre of still- threatened
conflict, and marched off two to three hundred negroes
to jail for safe-keeping. The mob, however, recom-
menced its violence early, and at different points. The
Philanthropist office was again sacked, and a number of
houses inhabited by negroes and the negro church on
Sixth street were partially destroyed and rifled of their
contents. An attempt was made to fire the book estab-
lishment of Truman & Smith, on Main street, which was
for some reason obnoxious to the roughs. Before morning,
however, the mob, not receiving fresh accessions, stopped
its violence, and dispersed through sheer exhaustion.
Several men were killed in the progress of the affair, and
twenty or thirty wounded, a few of them dangerously.
About forty of the mob were arrested. The affair as-
sumed importance enough to cause the issue of a procla-
mation by the governor. That night the military turned
out in force, including a troop of horse and several foot
companies, with the firemen acting under authority as
police, and eighty citizens who had volunteered to sup-
port the officers of the law.
In October the Western Methodist Anti-Slavery con-
vention assembled at Cincinnati. It actually could not
then find a meeting-house of its own denomination open
to it, but found a hospitable reception in a Baptist church.
Hon. Samuel Lewis was chairman of this meeting. Fif-
teen years afterwards the feeling had so changed that one
of the largest Methodist churches of the city was used
for a great and enthusiastic Republican meeting, assem-
bled to promote the election of General Fremont.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO.
One of the chief events of this year was the arrival
from Pittsburgh of the young but already celebrated
English novelist, Charles Dickens, with his wife. They
staid but a short time, and then embarked on the steamer
Pike, for Louisville, stopping here also for a day on his
return. He gave Cincinnati a chapter in his American
Notes, and treated it much more fairly than some other
places alleged themselves to have been treated. We ex-
tract the following:
Monday, April 4, 1842.
When the morning sun shines again, it gilds the house-tops of a lively
city, before whose broad, paved wharf the boat is moored ; with other
boats, and flags and moving wheels and hum of men around it ; as
though there were not a solitary or silent rood of ground within the
compass of a thousand miles around.
Cincinnati is a beautiful city ; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I
have not often seen a place that commends itself so favorably and pleas,
antly to a stranger at the first glance as this does, with its clean houses
of red and white, its well-paved roads and footways of bright tile. Nor
does it become less prepossessing on a closer acquaintance. The
streets are broad and airy, the shops extremely good, the private resi-
dences remarkable for their elegance and neatness. There is some-
thing of invention and fancy in the varying styles of these latter
erections, which, after the dull company of the steamboat, is perfectly
delightful, as conveying an assurance that there are such qualities still
in existence. The disposition to ornament these pretty villas and ren-
der them attractive leads to the culture of trees and flowers, and the
laying-out of well kept gardens, the sight of which, to those who walk
along the streets, is inexpressibly refreshing and agreeable. I was
quite charmed with the appearance of the town and its adjoining sub-
urb of Mount Auburn, from which the city, lying in an amphitheatre of
hills, forms a picture of remarkable beauty and is seen to great advan-
tage.
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
93
There happened to be a great temperance convention held here on
the day after our arrival ; and as the order of march brought the pro-
cession under the windows of the hotel in which we lodged, when they
started in the morning, I had a good opportunity of seeing it. It com-
prised several thousand men, the members of various "Washington
Auxiliary Temperance Societies," and was marshaled by officers on
horseback, who cantered briskly up and down the line, with scarves and
ribands of bright colors fluttering out behind them gaily. There were
bands of music, too, and banners out of number ; and it was a fresh,
holiday looking concourse altogether.
I was particularly pleased to see the Irishmen, who formed a distinct
society among themselves, carrying their national Harp and their por-
trait of Father Mathew high above the people's heads. They looked
as jolly and good-humored as ever ; and, working the hardest for their
living, and doing any kind of sturdy labor that came in their way, were
the most independent fellows there, I thought.
The banners were very well painted, and flaunted down the street fa-
mously. There was the smiting of the rock and the gushing forth of
the waters ; and there was a. temperate man with a considerable of a
hatchet (as" the standard-bearer would probably have said) aiming a
deadly blow at a serpent which was apparently about to spring upon
him from the top of a barrel of spirits. But the chief feature of this
part of the show was a huge allegorical device, borne among the ship-
carpenters, on one side whereof the steamboat Alcohol was represented
bursting her boiler and exploding with a great crash, while upon the
other the good ship Temperance sailed away with a fair wind; to the
heart's content of the captain, crew, and passengers.
After going round the town, the procession repaired to a certain ap-
pointed place, where, as the printed programme set forth, it would be
received by the children of the different free schools, "singing temper-
ance songs." I was prevented from getting there in time to hear these
little warblers, or to report upon this novel kind of vocal entertainment
— novel, at least, to me ; but I found, in a large open space, each soci-
ety gathered round its own banners and listening in silent attention to
its own orator. The speeches, judging from the little I could hear of
them, were certainly adapted to the occasion, as having that degree of
relationship to cold water which wet blankets may claim ; but the main
thing was the conduct and appearance of the audience throughout the
day, and that was admirable and full of promise.
Cincinnati is honorably famous for its free schools, of which it has so
many that no person's child among its population can, by possibility,
want the means of education, which are extended, upon an average, to
four thousand pupils annually, I was only present in one of these es-
tablishments during the hours of instruction. In the boys' department,
which, was full of little urchins (varying in their ages, I should say, from
six years old to ten or twelve), the master offered to institute an extem-
porary examination of the pupils in algebra — a proposal which, as I
was by no means confident of my ability to detect mistakes in that
science, I declined with some alarm. In the girls' school reading was
proposed, and as I felt tolerably equal to that art, I expressed my will-
ingness to hear a class. Books were distributed accordingly, and some
half-dozen girls relieved each other in reading paragraphs in English
history. But it was a dry compilation, infinitely above their powers;
and when they had blundered through three or four dreary passages
concerning the Treaty of Amiens and other thrilling topics of the same
nature (obviously without comprehending ten words), I expressed my-
self quite satisfied. It is very possible that they only mounted to this
extreme stave in the ladder of learning for the astonishment of a visitor,
and that at other times they keep upon its lower rounds ; but I should
have been much better pleased and satisfied if I had heard them exer-
cised in simpler lessons, which they understood.
As in every other place I visited, the judges here were gentlemen of
high character and attainments. I was in one of the courts for a few
minutes, and found it like those to which I have already referred. A
nuisance cause was trying; there were not many spectators ; and the
witness, counsel, and jury formed a sort of family circle, sufficiently jo-
cose and snug.
The society with which I mingled was intelligent, courteous, and
agreeable. The inhabitants of Cincinnati are proud of their city, as one
of the most interesting in America, and with reason; for, beautiful and
thriving as it is now, and containing, as it does, a population of fifty
thousand souls, but two and fifty years have passed away since the
ground on which it stands (bought at that time for a few dollars), was
a wildwood and its citizens were but a handful of dwellers in scattered
log huts upon the river's shore.
Another bank mob occurred in the city on the first of
November, caused by the suspension of the Bank of
Cincinnati and the Miami Exporting company's bank.
Some movable property, books, and papers, were reached
and destroyed, and a demonstration was also made
against two exchange offices; but the City Guard, under
command of the astronomer, Captain O. M. Mitchel,
were defending the banks, and after they had fired a vol-
ley or two on the mob, wounding several, the crowd dis-
persed and did no further damage.
The number of new buildings erected this year was
five hundred and thirty-seven.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE.
Mr. Cist notes this year as an era in the political ex-
istence of Cincinnati, as having two natives of the county
rival candidates for the office of Mayor at the spring
election — Messrs. Henry E. Spencer and Henry Morse
— which was certainly a very interesting circumstance,
but was paralleled in 1845, when the same two were
again candidates for the office.
February 28th a disastrous fire and explosion occurred
in Pugh & Alvord's pork-packing establishment, which
killed eight persons and wounded fourteen, among them
several prominent citizens.
November 2d, the first number of the Cincinnati Com-
mercial was issued, by Messrs. Curtiss & Hastings. On
the twenty-eighth the Whitewater canal was opened.
December 2 2d, S. S. Davies, ex-mayor of the city, de-
parted this life.
Number of new buildings this year, six hundred and
twenty-one.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR.
This year was comparatively devoid of events, save
the inevitable quadrennial excitement of the Presidential
election. On the twenty-seventh of April the first
ground was bought for Spring Grove cemetery. The
eighth of October marked the advent of Millerism, of
which an interesting account will be found in our chap-
ter on Religion in Cincinnati. The first, and long the
only cotton factory in the city, was erected this year by
Messrs. Samuel Fosdick, Anthony Harkness, and Jacob
Strader.
During the summer and fall of this year, Mr. Charles
Cist pursued his favorite occupation of enumerating the
buildings, of the city, the results of which he published
in his Miscellany. He found in the First ward fifteen
public buildings (including the post office, a theatre, and
the unfinished observatory), and one hundred and twenty
dwellings, shops, storehouses, mills, and offices — total
seven hundred and thirty-five — five hundred and fifty-
one of brick and one hundred and eighty-four frames.
Eighty-two had been built in 1844, against twenty-six the
previous year. The Second ward showed up twenty-two
public buildings and one thousand and thirty-nine dwel-
ings, etc., — eight hundred and twenty-five brick and two
hundred and fourteen frame. One hundred and two of
these had been put up within the year. The Third ward
contained but six public edifices, but had one thousand
one hundred and sixty-two private buildings — two of
stone, four hundred and thirty-four frame, and seven
94
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
hundred and twenty brick. Some of the new structures,
one hundred and seventeen in number, are described as
of great extent and height. Mr. Cist says :
The Third ward is the great hive of Cincinnati industry, especially
in the manufacturing line. Planing machines, iron foundries, brewer-
ies, saw-mills, rolling-mills, finishing shops, bell and brass foundries,
boiler yards, boat building, machine shops, etc., constitute an exten-
sive share of its business.
The Fourth ward, also embracing a large share of the
heavy business of the city, now had four buildings of a
public character and one thousand two hundred and
seven others — four stone, six hundred and fifty-two
brick, and five hundred and fifty-one frames — one hun-
dred and seventeen built the same year. Fifth ward —
public buildings, thirteen; private, one thousand five hun-
dred and fifty-two; brick, eight hundred and twenty-five;
frame, seven hundred and twenty-seven ; built this year,
one hundred and seventy-six. Sixth — public structures,
ten; private, one thousand and fifty-three; built in 1844
(seventy-nine less than in 1843), one hundred and seven-
teen; brick, four hundred and ninety-five; frame, five
hundred and sixty-eight. Several improvements of a su-
perior character are noted. Seventh — twelve public build-
ings, one thousand two hundred and ninety-nine private —
six hundred and ten brick, seven hundred and one frames;
two hundred and nineteen built this year. The great edi-
fice going up, as it had been for four years, was the Roman
Catholic cathedral, on Plum street. Eighth — seven pub-
lic and one thousand one hundred and fifty-seven private
structures — four hundred and three brick, seven hundred
and sixty-one frame ; built during the year, two hundred
and twenty-six. "A great number of fine dwellings of
brick'' are noted as among the new improvements. Ninth
— fourteen public and one thousand one hundred and
ninety-eight private buildings; new ones, eighty-two;
brick, four hundred and seventy-eight ; frame, seven hun-
dred and thirty-two; stone, two. The total number of
buildings in the city was ten thousand seven hundred and
seventy-three, an increase of one thousand two hundred
and twenty-eight over the previous year. It was also
thought that as many as five hundred new buildings had
been put up during the year in the district between the
corporation line and the base of the hills on the north.
Many familiar old buildings disappeared this year —
among them Fairchild's corner, on Main and Front,
which was a quarter of a century old ; Elsenlock's comer,
on Walnut and Front, which was one of the earliest en-
closed lots of Losantiville, and the building upon it the
favorite resort of the "United Democracy;" also, east of
Main, above Fifth, an old white frame building, put up
in the days of Fort Washington, and Andrew's Buck's ho-
tel, once a fashionable resort. Looking from the corner
of Main and Fifth, all buildings of a quarter of a century
before, within the view, had disappeared.
A classification made of citizens this year, according
to their pecuniary ability, developed the fact that there
was only one man (Nicholas Longworth) worth over five
hundred thousand dollars; six were worth two hundred
thousand to four hundred thousand dollars; twenty-six
one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand dollars;
forty-three fifty thousand*to one hundred thousand dol-
lars; fifty-six thirty thousand to fifty thousand dollars;
seventy-three twenty to thirty thousand dollars; eighty-
two fifteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars; one
hundred and eighteen ten thousand to fifteen thousand
dollars; four hundred and twenty-three five to ten thqu-
sartd dollars; six hundred and forty-five two thousand
five hundred to five thousand dollars; eight hundred and
twenty-six one thousand five hundred to two thousand
five hundred dollars; and thirteen hundred and thirteen
under one thousand five hundred dollars. It was esti-
mated that the sale of eight squares in the business part
of the city would more than pay all the bank debts then
due by her business men.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE.
The population of the city this year had grown to seven-
ty^four thousand six hundred and ninety-nine — an in-
crease of twenty-eighf thousand three hundred and sev-
enteen, or sixty-one per cent., in five years. The increase
was to be yet more remarkable during the five years to
come.)) The number of new buildings was one thousand
two hundred and fifty-two — seven hundred and eighty-
nine brick, four hundred and sixty-three frame. The
total number of buildings in the city was eleven thousand
five hundred and sixty, exclusive of stables and the like.
Among the finer structures in the course of erection this
year were the Cincinnati college, the Masonic and Odd
Fellows' halls, the College of Dental Surgery, two Ro-
man Catholic, two Presbyterian, four Methodist, one
Welsh, and two Disciple churches. The building of the
college, on Walnut street, between Fourth and Fifth,
where its successor now stands, had been burned on the
nineteenth of January, and a more spacious and elegant
structure was now going up.
In May of this year Mr. Cist thus notes in his Miscel-
lany some interesting facts relating to the trend of the
Dusiness interests of the city:
r |The increase of business in Cincinnati compels it to radiate from its
former centres. Blocks of business stands are forming east, west and
north of the existing commercial regions.) Thus some thirty large
ware- and store-houses have been or are just about to be erected on
Walnut, between Water and Second streets. (Commerce is finding vent
down Second, Third and J'ront streets to the west, and up Second and
Third streets to the east.1 That fine block known by the name of
Hopple's row, and which l»s hardly been a year built, is now occupied
with lace and dry-goods stores, drug-shops, carpet ware-houses, etc., in
which goods are offered wholesale to as good advantage as in any other
part of the city. Among these the dry-good store of Baird &
Scrmyler may be especially alluded to as a fine establishment. These
E-e the OjCcupants of the lower buildings ; up stairs is a perfect den of
ipers in the shape of lawyers and editors.
We continue Mr. Cist's interesting notices of local
matters :
f Our Northwest Territory.— There is nothing in Cincinnati ex-
k hibits a growth as vigorous as the northwestern part of our city) popu-
larly called Texas. What constituted originally the Seventh ward was, (
only seven years ago, interspersed here and there with dwellings, but
consisted principally of brick-yards, cattle-pastures and vegetable gar-
dens, for the supply of markets. Such was the unimproved condition
of this region, that nearly two hundred and fifty acres, occupied as
pasturage, were owned by four or five individuals alone) Two hundred
and fifty acres of pasturage in a city, and that city as thriving as Cin-
cinnati ! (The whole number of dwellings at that period, within the
bounds of that ward, were short of three hundred and fifty, and its
whole population could not have reached to twenty-five hundred souls;
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
95
and these the buildings and inhabitants of a section of Cincinnati more
than a mile square!
Now what a change! Eleven hundred new buildings, most of them
of a character for beauty, permanence and value equal to the average
of the main body of our city improvements. The streets graded and
paved to a great extent, churches and public school-houses going up in
its midst, and well-paved sidewalks, adding to the general finish and
convenience.) With all these improvements, too, space has been left,
at the sides and in the fronts of the buildings, for that free introduction
of shrubbery and flowers which render our city so attractive to stran-
gers, and so airy and pleasant to ourselves. It is, in short, completely
rus in urbe, abounding in spots which combine the comfort of a coun-
try villa with the convenience and advantages of a city residence.
It may serve to give a striking view of the magnitude and extent of
the improvements in this region to state that London street has been
graded from Fulton to Mound street west, which extent, some one
thousand two hundred feet in length, is now dug down from five to
ten feet, to fill up one thousand feet farther west and the entire width —
sixty feet — of the street. The stupendous character of the work may
be inferred from the volume of earth filled in, which, at the intersection
of Baymiller street, measures sixteen feet in depth. Tfie greater part
of this is also paved, and progressing as fast in paving as is prudent,
the graded ground being covered with stone as fast as it settles to its
permanent bed. This must become one of the finest entrances to our
city. /The population of this section of Cincinnati is now, doubtless,
eleven thousand, the inhabitants having quadruped since 1838.
A new and important avenue to trade and marketing has been
opened through this part of the city, by extending Freeman street to
the Hamilton road. The effect of this will be to direct a large share of
the travelling to the city, to the intersection of Fifth and Front streets;
and to bring the pork-wagons into direct communication with the pork-
houses which must be put up on the line of the Whitewater canal.
This avenue will also become a formidable rival to Western Row, as
a connection between the adjacent parts of Indiana and Cincinnati^
owing to the scandalous condition into which the upper part of that
street has been suffered to dilapidate, which renders it impassable in
winter and unpleasant at all times. •
Eighth street was now paved to a distance of more
than two miles west of Main, and was rapidly coming
into use as one of the chief avenues of travel to and
from the country.
Mr. [Elmore] Williams was originally the owner of all that valuable
property at the corner of Main and Front streets, facing one hundred
feet on Front and two hundred on Main street, extending from Worth-
ington Shillito & Co.'s grocery store to Front, and thence Place Traber
& Co.'s store, west to Main street, and became so under these circum-
stances: The lot in question was taken up by Henry Lindsey, who
after holding it a year or more disposed of it to a young man for a job
of work, whose name Mr. Williams has forgot. The second owner,
having a desire to revisit his former home in New Jersey, and being
unwilling to trust himself through the wilderness without a horse,
begged Mr. Williams, with whom' he was acquainted, the latter then
residing at the point of the junction of the Licking and the Ohio, to
take his lot in payment for a horse, saddle and bridle of his, valued at
sixty-five dollars. After much importunity and principally with the view
of accommodating a neighbor, Mr. Williams consented, and after
holding the property a few days, disposed of it again tor another
horse and equipments, by which he supposed he made ten dollars,
perhaps. This lot not long afterwards fell into the hands of Colonel
Gibson, who offered it for one hundred dollars to Major Bush of Boone
county, in 1793. So slight was the advance for years to property in
Cincinnati. This lot, probably at this time the most valuable in the
city, estimating the rent at six per cent, of its value, is now worth three
hundred and thirty-seven thousand and four hundred dollars. Where
else in the world is the property which in fifty-four years had risen
from four dollars to such a value?
The man is still living, and in full possession of his faculties, bodily
and mental, who stood by surveying the first cellar-digging in Cincin-
nati. This was the cellar of the first brick house put up here, and
which was built by the late Elmore Williams, at the corner of Main
and Fifth streets. As one-half of the community in that day had never
seen a cellar, being emigrants from the farming districts, and the other
half were surveying a novelty in Cincinnati, it may readily be conceived
there was no scarcity of on-lookers. My informant gives it as his
judgment that the west half of the Wade dwelling on Congress street,
is the oldest building now standing in Cincinnati, certainly the only
one remaining of what were built when he first saw the place. Most of
the houses were log cabins, and hardly better, so he phrases it, "than
sugar-camps at that." The city, when he landed, had not five hundred
inhabitants. He has lived to behold its increase to seventy-five. thou-
sand. Where will the next fifty years find it?
June i:th, was held a meeting of the southern and
western anti-slavery convention in the city, with animated
and interesting discussions.
An interesting event occurred on the twenty-eighth of
September, in the dedication of Spring Grove cemetery.
Cincinnati had now the beginnings of a worthy "God's
acre."
The city was visited in 1845 by the great English
geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, who, more than any other
man in the history of geology, industriously collected
facts and constructed theories for it. He was out much
on explorations in this region with Dr. John Locke, who
had been on the State geological survey; and visited the
Big Bone lick, in company with Robert Buchanan, Mr.
Anthony, and other intelligent gentlemen. The following
are some of Sir Charles' remarks upon the geology and
paleontology of this part of the valley:
The Ohio river at Cincinnati, and immediately above and below it, is
bounded on its right bank by two terraces, on which the city is built,
the streets in the upper and lower part of it standing on different levels.
These terraces are composed of sand, gravel, and loam, such as the
river, if blocked up by some barrier, might now be supposed to sweep
down in its current and deposit in a lake. The upper terrace is bounded
by steep hills of ancient fossiliferous rocks. Near the edge of the higher
terrace, in digging a gravel-pit, which I saw open at the end of Sixth
street, they discovered lately the teeth of the elephas primigenius, the
same extinct species which is met with in very analogous situations on
the banks of the.Thames, and the same which was found preserved en-
tire with its flesh in the ice of Siberia. Above the stratum from which
the tooth was obtained I observed about six feet of gravel covered by
ten feet of fine yellow loam, and below it were alternations of gravel,
loam, and sand, for twenty feet. But I searched in vain for any accom-
panying fossil shells. These, however, have been found in a similar
situation at Mill creek, near Cincinnati, a place where several teeth of
mastodons have been met with. They belong to the genera mclania,
lymncea, amnicola, succinea, physa, planorbis, paludina, cyclas, helix
and pupa, all of recent species, and nearly all known to inhabit the im-
mediate neighborhood. I was also informed that near Wheeling a bed
of freshwater shells, one foot thick, of the genus unio, is exposed at the
height of one hundred and twenty feet above the main level of the
Ohio. The remains of the common American mastodon (M. gigantius)
have also been found at several points in the strata in the upper terrace,
both above and below Cincinnati. Upon the whole it appears that the
strata of loam, clay, and gravel, forming the elevated terraces on both
sides of the Ohio and its tributaries, and which we know to have re-
mained unaltered from the era of the Indian mounds and earthworks,
originated subsequently to the period of the existing mollusca, but
when several quadrupeds now extinct inhabited this continent. The
lower parts, both of the larger and smaller valleys, appear to have been
filled up with a fluviatile deposit, through which the streams have sub-
sequently cut broad and deep channels. These phenomena very closely
resemble those presented by the loess, or ancient river-silt of the Rhine
and its tributaries, and the theory which I formerly suggested to ac-
count for the position of the Rhenish loess (also charged with recent
land and freshwater shells, and occasionally with the remains of the ex-
tinct elephant) may be applicable to the American deposits.
I imagined first a gradual movement of depression, like that now in
progress on the west coast of Greenland, to lessen the fall of the waters
or the height of the land relatively to the ocean. In consequence of
the land being thus lowered, the bottoms of the main and lateral val-
leys become filled up with fluviatile sediment, containing terrestrial
and freshwater shells, in the same manner as deltas are formed where
rivers meet the sea, the salt water being excluded, in spite of continued
subsidence, by the accumulation of alluvial matter brought down, inces-
santly from the land above. Afterwards I suppose an upward move-
ment gradually to restore the country to its former level, and, during
this upheaval, the rivers remove a large part of the accumulated mud,
96
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
sand and gravel. I have already shown that on the coast of Georgia
and South Carolina, in the United States, we have positive proofs of
modern oscillations of level, similar to those here assumed.
The rock forming the hills and table-lands around Cincinnati, called
the blue limestone, has been commonly referred to the age of the
Trenton limestone of New York, but is considered by Messrs. Conrad
and Hall, and I believe with good reason, as comprehending also the
Hudson river group. It seems impossible, however, to separate these
divisions in Ohio, so that the' district colored blue (No. 15) may be re-
garded as agreeing with Nos. 14 and 15 in other parts of my map.
Several of the fossils which I collected at Cincinnati, the encrinites and
aviculae (of the sub-genus Pterined) in particular, agree with those
which I afterward procured near Toronto, on the northern shores of
Lake Ontario.
After seeing at Cincinnati several fine collections of recent and fossil
shells in the cabinets of Messrs. Buchanan, Anthony and Clark, I ex-
amined with care the quarries of blue limestone and marl in the sub-
urbs. The organic remains here are remarkably well preserved for so
ancient a rock, especially those occurring in a compact argillaceous
blue limestone, not unlike the lias of Europe. Its deposition ' appears
to have gone on very tranquilly, as the lingula has been met with in its
natural and erect position, as if enclosed in mud when alive, or still
standing on its peduncle. Crnstaceans of the. genus Trinacleus are
found spread out in great numbers on layers of the solid marl, as. also
another kind of trilobite, called Paradoxides, equally characteristic of
the Lower Silurian system of Europe. The large hotelus gigas, three or
four inches long, a form represented, in the Lower Silurian of northern
Europe, by the asaphi with eight abdominal articulations, deserves also
to be mentioned, and a species of graptolite. I obtained also Spirifer-
lynx in great abundance, a shell which Messrs. Murchisbn and De
Verneuil regard as very characteristic of the Lower Silurian beds of^
Russia and Sweden. Among the mollusca I may also mention Cept<Bnar
sericea, Orthls striatula, Belleropkon bilobatus, Aviculte of the 'sub-
genus Pterinea, Cypricradia, Orthoccras, and others. There were
also some beautiful forms of Crinoidea, or stone-lilies, and many corals,
which Mr. Lonsdale informs me differ considerably from those hitherto
known in Britain — a circumstance probably arising from the small de-
velopment of coralline limestones in the Lower Silurian strata of our
island. Several species of the new genus Stenopora of Lonsdale are
remarkably abundant.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX.
January 6th, occurred the first annual meeting of the
New England society; Henry Starr, president. On the
fifteenth, the post office was removed from near the
Henrie house to the Masonic building, at the corner of
Third and Walnut streets.
March 25th, Messrs. Wright & Graff sold at auction
seventy-five feet of ground, with buildings thereon, on
the southeast corner of Third and Walnut, for fifteen
thousand six hundred and twenty-five dollars; and April
14th, there was a considerable sale of lots belonging to
the Barr estate, at the West end.
April 17th, Miles Greenwood's foundry was burned,
but he rebuilt promptly and reoccupied September 17th,
just five months after the fire.
On the 9th of July the First and Second Ohio infantry
regiments, commanded by Colonels O. M. Mitchel and
Curtis, left Camp Washington for the theatre of war in
Mexico.
August 10th, announcement was made that the Little
Miami railroad would run its first train to Springfield.
On the 14th, the Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, for many years
pastor of the First Presbyterian church, dies.
September 7th, the Merchants' exchange is opened in
the college building. On the 28th Edward Byington
falls by the hand of violence, slain by Theodore Church.
New buildings to the number of nine hundred and
eighty were erected.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN.
New buildings this year, one thousand one hundred
and forty. The first five-story brick in Cincinnati was
put up at the corner of Pearl and Walnut streets, by Ed-
mund B. Reeder — the building afterwards occupied by
Booth's hardware store. While the cellar was being dug,
an old bystander gave the interesting information that he
had once loaded a fiat-boat on that very spot.
On the twenty-first of August, the first public tele-
graphic dispatch wired to Cincinnati was received by the
local press. It was justly accounted a very interesting
event.
In December another tremendous flood occurred in
the Ohio, reaching its height about the seventeenth, when
it stood only six inches lower than in the great freshet of
1832. The city was better prepared for it, however, and
although there was much distress and loss, it did not
entirely renew the excitement and unhappy scenes of fif-
teen years before.
On the twenty-second of April, Levi Coffin and family
moved to Cincinnati. This arrival is solely noticeable
because it brought a strong reinforcement to the rather
feeble band of abolitionists in the city, and because it in-
troduced here a new branch of trade — a grocery store at
which, no products of slave labor were to be had. Mr.
Coffin was of- Massachusetts and Maryland stock, but a
native of. North. Carolina, where he became thoroughly
impressed, with the ills of slavery, and a confirmed abo-
litionist. He went in 1822 to Indiana, and taught school
there awhile, returned to North Carolina, engaged in
teaching again, but came west finally in the fall of 1826
and located at Newport, Wayne county, Indiana, where
he remained for more than twenty years, engaged in
store-keeping, pork-packing, making linseed oil, and
managing a station of the Underground railroad. In
the last named business — quite the reverse of profitable,
in a pecuniary sense — he was exceedingly zealous, and
assisted many fugitive slaves in the direction of the
north star. He says in his volume of Reminiscences:
"This work was kept up during the time we lived in
Newport, a period of more than twenty years. The num-
ber of fugitives varied considerably in different years,
but the annual average was more than one hundred."
It was to his house in Newport that the Eliza Harris
of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin went, on her journey
northward, and told her thrilling story of escape.
In 1844 he became convinced that it was wrong to sell,
buy, or use any product of slave toil, and began the
search for groceries and cotton goods that were, from first
to last, solely the result of free labor. He found associ-
ations already existing in Philadelphia and New York,
manufacturing goods of free-labor cotton, and getting
sugar and other groceries from the British West Indies
and other localities where slavery did not exist He
bought a limited stock of these for his Newport store
and sold them, necessarily to Abolitionists almost exclu-
sively, and at a very small profit, compared with that he
might have realized from slave-labor wares. He traveled
in the south to find localities where slaves were not used
in the production of cotton and sugar ; and in one case,
/.,,. 1,1 - ■ ■
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
97
where cotton was ruined for his purposes by being neces-
sarily passed through a gin operated by slaves, he bought
a three hundred dollar gin in Cincinnati and shipped it
to Mississippi, relying upon his correspondent there to
pay for it in cotton. It was thenceforth known as the
"Abolition gin," and greatly stimulated the production of
free-labor cotton.
Mr. Coffin came to Cincinnati in 1847, at the solicita-
tion of a Union Free-labor convention, held at Salem,
Indiana, the previous fall, to open a wholesale depository
of free-labor goods. This he did, though at much pecu-
niary sacrifice and in the face of much personal obloquy.
Contrary to his expectation, he had also to remain in act-
ive service as president of the Underground railroad, as
he had come now to be generally considered. His Rem-
iniscences say.
I was personally acquainted with all the active and reliable workers
on the Underground railroad in the city, both colored and white. There
were a few wise and careful managers among the colored people, but it
was not safe to trust all of them with the affairs of our work. Most of
them were too careless, and a few were unworthy — they could be bribed
by the slave-hunters to betray the hiding-places of the fugitives.
We were soon initiated into Underground railroad matters in Cincin-
nati, and did not lack for work. Our willingness to aid the slaves was
soon known, and hardly a fugitive came to the city without applying to
us for assistance. There seemed to be a continual increase of run-
aways, and such was the vigilance of the pursuers that I was obliged to
devote a large share of time from my business to making arrangements
for the concealment and safe conveyance of the fugitives. They some-
times came to our door frightened and panting and in a destitute con-
dition, having fled in such haste and fear that they had no time to bring
any clothing except what they had on, and that was often very scant.
The expense of providing suitable clothing for them when it was neces-
sary for them to go on immediately, or of feeding them when they were
obliged to be concealed for days or weeks, was very heavy. Added to
this was the cost of hiring teams when a party of fugitives had to be
conveyed out of the city by night to some Underground railroad depot,
from twenty to thirty miles distant. The price for a two-horse team on
such occasions was ten dollars, and sometimes two or three teams were
required. We generally hired these teams from a certain German livery
stable, sending some irresponsible though honest colored man to pro-
cure them, and always sending the money to pay for them in advance.
The people of the livery stable seemed to understand what the teams
were wanted for, and asked no questions.
Learning that the runaway slaves often arrived almost destitute of
clothing, a number of the benevolent ladies of the city— Mrs. Sarah
H. Ernst, Miss Sarah O. Ernst, Mrs. Henry Miller, Mrs. Dr. Ayde-
lott, Mrs. Julia Harwood, Mrs. Amanda E. Foster, Mrs. Elizabeth
Coleman, Mrs. Mary Mann, Mrs. Mary M. Guild, Miss K. Emery,
and others — organized an anti-slavery sewing society, to provide suit-
able clothing for the fugitives. After we came to the city, they met at
our house every week for a number of years, and wrought much prac-
tical good by their labors.
Our -house was large, and well adapted for secreting fugitives. Very
often slaves would lie concealed in upper chambers for weeks, without
the boarders or frequent visitors at the house knowing anything about
it. My wife had a quiet, unconcerned way of going about her work,
as if nothing unusual was on hand, which was calculated to lull every
suspicion of those who might be watching, and who would have been
at once aroused by any sign of secrecy or mystery. Even the intimate
friends of the family did not know when there were slaves secreted in
the house, unless they were directly informed. When my wife took
food to the fugitives she generally concealed it in a basket, and put
some freshly ironed garment on the top, to make it look like a basket-
ful of clean clothes. Fugitives were not often allowed to eat in the
kitchen, from fear of detection.
The interest of these statements, as part of a mem-
orable chapter of local and political history, justifies the
space we have given to them. Mr. Coffin remained in
Cincinnati, successfully but modestly conducting his
business as an Abolition storekeeper and underground
railway manager so long as necessary; and after the war,
at a meeting of the colored folk of Cincinnati and vicin-
ity, to celebrate the adoption of the fifteenth amendment
to the Constitution, he formally and humorously resigned
his office as President of the Underground railroad, de-
claring that " the stock had gone down in the market,
the business was spoiled, the road was of no further use" ;
and retired amid much applause. During the war and
afterwards, he did much good work among the destitute
and suffering freedmen. He since published his Remin-
iscences in a thick volume, abounding in interesting nar-
ratives. After his death a second edition was published,
with an added chapter giving an account of his closing
years. He died at his residence in Avondale, September
16, 1877, at the advanced age of seventy-nine, leaving
his widow still surviving.
A terrible riot occurred at the county jail this year,
resulting in the death of eleven persons, some of whom
were wholly innocent of any complicity with the mob.
Two soldiers in the Mexican war had been discharged at
its close and returned to the city with their land war-
rants. They were soon after accused of an outrage upon
the person of the little daughter of the family with whom
they were boarding, near the Brighton house, and were
lodged in the old jail, on Sycamore street, the officers
taking them thither fighting their way with the utmost
difficulty through an infuriated mob. . Toward evening
an immense crowd gathered about the place, which was
'guarded by the finest military companies in the city — the
Greys and the Citizens' Guards — and several rushes were
made upon the building. At first the assailants were re-
pulsed by the firing of blank cartridges; but at last, when
the soldiers were pressed back, and the ringleaders were
actually within the doors of the jail, it became necessary
to fire with ball, which was done with terribly fatal effect,
stretching eleven persons lifeless at the first fire, some of
them at a distance from the mob, and not participating
in it. The people were unarmed and dispersed at once
in haste, not to return; and the prisoners were saved
from the threatened vengeance. After a little time for
reflection, popular feeling settled in favor of the action
of the officers and soldiery, and finally in favor of the
prisoners themselves. They were not even brought to
trial, the grand jury unanimously refusing to bring a bill
of indictment against them; and there is little doubt that
the infamous charge was part of a scheme to dispossess
them of the land-warrants which they had honestly
earned by hard and dangerous service. Public opinion
was turned so strongly against their persecutors, indeed,
that they found it advisable to disappear from the com-
munity, to escape possible lynching themselves.
Number of new buildings this year, one thousand
three hundred and five.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE.
The number of names upon the directory this year is
twenty-one thousand five hundred and forty-five, exceed-
ing the number upon the directory of 1846 by six thou-
sand nine hundred and forty-five. The addition was
made this year of Fulton, a tolerably large and densely
98
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
populated suburb, equal to about one-third of the former
dimensions of the city. The Burnet house was erected
this year by a joint stock company, and was then ac-
counted the finest hotel building in the country. Many
distinguished persons were its guests, in the earlier as
well as the later days. The room once occupied by
Jenny Lind still bears her name.
In November or December came the famous Lady
Emmeline Stuart Wortley. She staid but one day in
Cincinnati, on account of the crowded hotels, and made
few remarks upon the place in the book she afterwards
published. She noted it as a "very handsome city, in a
remarkably fine situation;" has a good word for the Ger-
man immigrants; has her attention attracted by "the
floating wharves, which are rendered necessary by the
continued and rapid fluctuations of the river." She gives
the town a malicious little fling at the close :
It may be confidently stated that Cincinnati, the pride of the banks
of "La Belle Riviere," is in fact what its name, "Porkopolis," implies
— the Empire city of pigs, as well as of the west; but it is fortunate that
they condescendingly allow human beings to share the truly magnifi-
cent location with them.
On the first of May, one train per day, each way, be-
gan to run over the Little Miami railroad to Springfield.
On the sixth occurred the murder of O- Brasher by
Jesse Jones; and on the tenth the death of Colonel
Charles H. Brough, a prominent lawyer of the city, and
soldier of the Mexican war.
July 20th was made memorable by the poisoning of
the Simmons family, and November 30th by the at-
tempted destruction in the same way of the Forrest fam-
ily, by the notorious poisoner, Nancy Farrer, in whose
trial the young lawyer, Rutherford B. Hayes, late Presi-
dent of the United States, bore a distinguished part.
She finally escaped the meshes of the law, on the plea of
insanity, and was sent to the Lick Run asylum.
Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his Memoirs of Dr. Drake,
submits the following valuable remarks and statistics con-
cerning the fatality and social characteristics of the chol-
era in Cincinnati this year :
It commenced at the middle of April, but did not entirely cease until
the return of frosts; but the intensity of the pestilence may be dated
from the middle of June to the middle of August. In other words, it
increased and declined with the heat. Except in the first season, 1832,
this has been its uniform characteristic in every year of its appearance.
It was so in 1833, '34, '39, '49, '50, '51, and '52. In the latter seasons it
was very light. In September, 1849, the Board of Health in Cincinnati
returned the following number of deaths, between the first of May and
the first of September — four months :
Deaths by cholera 4, 1 14
Deaths by other diseases 2,345
Aggregate 6,459
If we add to this the aggregate number of deaths in the last two
weeks of April, and from the first of September to the fifteenth of Oc-
tober, during which the number of deaths exceeded the average, we
shall have for six months at least seven thousand, of which four thou-
sand six hundred were from cholera. The mortality of the other six
months, at the aggregate rate, was only one thousand five hundred. ■
We have, then, for 1849, a total mortality of eight thousand five hun-
dred, which (the population of the city being one hundred and sixteen
thousand) made a ratio of one in fourteen.
If we examine this mortality socially, we shall arrive at some extraor-
dinary results. The division of the cemeteries at Cincinnati, by na-
tionalities and religions, is so complete that it is easily determined how
many of Americans and how many Protestants died of cholera. Tak-
ing the number given above, of those who died between the first of May
and the first of September, we have this result :
German, Irish, and Hebrews, died of cholera in four months 2,896
Americans, English, Scotch, and Welsh, " 1,218
4,114
We see thus that the deaths among the Germans and
Irish are within a fraction of being fourfold that of the Americans and
double that of the entire population proportionally. A more minute
and detailed investigation of this matter would, perhaps, prove that the
proportion of mortality was even more than this against the foreign
element.
At some time during the forties, probably, but in some
year or years which we are unable to designate with cer-
tainty, a series of letters was written from a house now
within the precincts of the city, which, as collected and
published by the celebrated English authoress, Mary
Howitt, under the title of our Cousins in Ohio, form
one of the most pleasant little books in the Cin-
cinnati literature. Names in them are carefully con-
cealed, and even Cincinnati is not once mentioned ; but
the local coloring is in places unmistakable. "Red
creek," for example, is undoubtedly Mill creek, and
Big Bluff creek, very likely, was Lick run; and Stony
creek Bold-face, which enters the river at Sedamsville.
The cedar grove mentioned as "the cedars," where lived
a sister of Mary Howitt and from which the letters were
written, is now occupied by the Young Ladies' Academy
of St. Vincent de Paul, a Roman Catholic institution,
conducted by the Sisters of Charity, beyond Price's
hill, on the Warsaw turnpike, in the extreme western
part of the city. It was formerly the property of a Mr.
Alderson. We present some entertaining extracts from
the book in question :
The wooden bridge over the Red creek was now repaired. This was
but a temporary bridge, the great stone bridge having been swept
away the former summer, in a thunder-storm ; and this was the third
that our friends had seen over Red creek since they came into the
country. When first they came, it was crossed by an old, covered,
wooden bridge ; and this was burned down one night by a man whose
horses' feet stuck fast in a hole of the planking, which made him so an-
gry that he vowed never again to be stopped by the same cause, and
therefore he set fire to the bridge before he left the place. In the course
of the summer a new bridge was again to be erected.
This Red creek was a small tributary of the Ohio. It was a very
beautiful stream, and its serpentine course could be traced at the cedars,
although its waters were unseen, by the white trunks and branches of
the buttonwood trees which grew upon its banks. It was famous in
Indian tradition, and the children often sang to themselves, in a low,
chanting strain, one of its legends, which an American poet had beau-
tifully sung in modern verse.
This day proved altogether an eventful one. Uncle Cornelius [Col-
onel Sedam?] told them about the landing of three hundred and ninety-
five emancipated slaves which he had witnessed [in Cincinnati]. They
arrived in the steamer at about eight o'clock that morning. They were
a motley company of men, women, and children, old and young, but
all decently dressed, and bringing with them their wagons and house-
hold stuff and considerable property — some people said to the value of
ten thousand pounds. The history of their emancipation was interest-
ing. It had been a struggle of nine years' continuance ; but to the
honor of the south, the law had decided in their favor, and they were
on their way to Mercer county, in the State of Ohio, which was chiefly
settled by free colored people, and where a tract of land had been pur-
chased for them.
These poor people had been the property of one John Randolph, a.
wealthy planter of Roanoke, Virginia. During his lifetime he had been
a strenuous upholder of slavery ; yet, even then, it was said that his con-
science often rebelled against him, and, but for custom and the fear
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
99
of ridicule, and perhaps of persecution also, he would have liberated
his slaves. He did, however, all that he believed it possible for him to
do; he provided in his will for their liberation after his death, and left a
handsome provision for their transportation to a free State and for their
maintenance there.
But this, it is said, did not' satisfy his conscience on his dying bed.
Being then unable to speak, he called for a pencil and paper, and wrote
upon it the word, "Remorse." He felt, it is probable, in those last
moments that even the act of kindness which he had prepared to do
after his death could not atone to the Almighty for a lifelong practice
of oppression, against the sinfulness of which his own soul had even
thus testified.
He died, and after a long nine years' struggle the slaves were freed
by law; and thus they now were on their way to what they hoped would
be a home of freedom and peace. Uncle Cornelius said that the prin-
cipal street of the city presented a singular sight, and one which they
who saw would not soon forget. First came in the procession a crowd
of negroes — men, women, and children, all dressed in coarse, cotton
garments, but having the appearance of people who, by their dress,
were in comfortable circumstances. They were on their way from the
river, up which the steamer had brought them, to the canal, where
they were again to embark for their new location. Behind them came
their baggage-wagons, which formed a very long and singular array;
and altogether it was the most extraordinary company of emigrants
which had ever been seen in those parts. Many of the women had
very young babies in their arms ; there were also some very old people
amongst them, and the one who brought up the rear was a very striding
figure. He was the oldest and noblest-looking colored man that Uncle
Cornelius had ever seen; he walked slowly with a. long cane, and had
something grand and patriarchal in'his aspect and manner. Probably
he might be one of those who had been brought up with his afterwards
celebrated master, and, perhaps, when remorse wrung his death-bed
soul, he might be remembered by him as one to whom a lifelong injus-
tice had been done.
Willie, one day, at the beginning of the month, rode with his father
some miles up the country, to Stony Creek valley, to see the wagon
loaded with charcoal, for which purpose it had been sent beforehand.
Charcoal was used to burn in a small stove with coal or wood, in the
cold mornings and evenings, to warm and cheer the rooms; and a store
of it was therefore laid in.
Stony Creek valley was one of the most secluded valleys in the
neighborhood; the road which ran along it passed through pleasant
woods, and now and then crossed the rocky bed of the stream. The
Valley itself was famous for lime and charcoal-burning; it was but little
cleared of wood, and the houses, .-which were mostly log-cabins, were
inhabited by Germans, principally charcoal-burners. There was a pleas-
ant kind of poetical, out-of-the- world character about the whole place;
and the curling smoke which rose up so dreamily into the sunny sky,
from the rude charcoal and lime kilns, added greatly to its effect.
CHAPTER XIV.
CINCINNATI'S SEVENTH DECADE.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY.
The census of this year was taken under inauspicious
conditions, on account of the return of the cholera from
its visitation of 1 84o7jNevertheless the figures obtained,
one hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred and
thirty-eight, were very large as contrasted with the forty-
six thousand three hundred and thirty-eight of ten years
before, showing an increase in the decade of sixty-nine
thousand one hundred, or very nearly two hundred and
fifty per cent. — an average of almost seven thousand
newcomers every year. The new buildings this year
numbered one thousand four hundred and eighteen, and
the total number of buildings was sixteen thousand two
hundred and eighty-six. The new ones included five
stone, nine hundred and thirty-nine brick, and four hun-
dred and sixty-four frame structures. Brick houses had
advanced in number beyond all others, and were now
three-fifths of all in Cincinnati. Among new public
edifices were the German Protestant Orphan asylum, the
Widow's home, sundry school-houses and engine houses,
the Episcopal church on Sycamore street, and St. John's,
at the corner of Seventh and Plum, the First and Seventh
Presbyterian churches, and two hotels. The City hall
and new court house were projected, the public offices
being still at the southeast corner of Fourth and Vine
streets. Fourteen macadamized roads now entered the
city, with an aggregate length of five hundred and four-
teen miles; two canals, together with their extensions,
reaching out five hundred and sixty miles, and twenty-
one railways, were in the immediate Cincinnati connec-
tions, in all measuring one thousand seven hundred and
thirteen miles, with five hundred and eighty-six miles
more in progress and one thousand and six undertaken.
The churches of the city numbered ninety-one, with four
synagogues.
Mr. Charles Cist, writing for his decennial volume
(Cincinnati in 1851) of the next year, has the following
paragraph concerning the heterogeneous character of the
city's population. Although written thirty years ago, it
is well worth quotation now:
The population of the city presents many varieties of physiology.
The original settlers were from various States of the Union; and the
armies of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, during the Indian wars, left
behind them a still greater variety of persons. The subsequent immi-
gration, though largely from the Middle and northern Atlantic States,
has been, in part, from the more southern. In latter years it has been
composed, still more than from either, of Europeans. The most
numerous of these are Germans, next Irish; then English, Scotch, and
Welsh. Very few French, Italians, or Spaniards have sought it out.
Lastly, its African population, chiefly emancipated slaves and their
offspring, from Kentucky and Virginia, is large; and although inter-
marriages with the whites are unknown, the streets show as many mu-
latto, griffe, and quadroon complexions as those of New Orleans.
Thusrjthe varieties of national physiology are very great.
yThis was a cholera year in Cincinnati, one terribly de-
structive to human life, and resulting in a panic, which
at one time almost depopulated the city. The number
of deaths reached the high figure of four thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two — more than four per cent, of the
entire population. J The census was taken this year, and
Mr. Cist says, in nis Cincinnati in 185 1 : "The popula-
tion returns were further reduced, from the still greater
numbers put to flight by the approach and arrival of that
pestilence. For weeks every vehicle of conveyance was
filled with these fugitives, who, in most cases, did not
return in time to be included in the enumeration of in-
habitants." He thought that, but for this drawback, the
census would have made a return for-the city of not less
than one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants. The
actual figures obtained were, as we have seen, one hun-
dred and fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty-eight
— an increase of two hundred and fifty per cent, in ten
years, against an increase of ninety per cent, from 1830
to 1840. No other city in the United States exhibited a
ratio of increase so large, nor was there any other whose
absolute increase was so great, except only Philadelphia
and New York
IOO
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
February 2d, Mr. John C. Avery, one of the earlier
sheriffs of the county, died at his home in Cincinnati.
May 3d, the well known hotel keepers, Messrs. Cole-
man & Reilly, having become lessees of the new Burnet
house, gave a grand ball by way of house-warming.
June 18th, officer Peter Davison, of the police force,
was murdered by John C. Walker.
On the first of September the house of refuge was
opened for the reception of inmates.
The Little Miami railroad depot, at the corner of
Front and Kilgour streets, was erected this year.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE.
The American Association for the Advancement of
Science, then an infant in years, but a strong and vigor-
ous one, met in the Queen City this year. At the close
of the session, in seconding a resolution of thanks to the
good people of the place tor their hospitalities and court-
esies, Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, very
handsomely said :
He had heard much of the Great West, much of the Queen City, and
had come to put his anticipations to the test. He expected to see a
boundless, magnificent forest world, with the scattered clearings, and
log cabins, and energetic New-England-descended inhabitants ; he
thought to find Cincinnati a thriving frontier town, exhibiting views of
neat wood houses, with white fronts, ' ' green doors, and brass knock-
ers ;" but instead of this, he found himself in a city of palaces, reared
as if by magic, and rivaling in appearance any city of the Eastern
States or of Europe. But it was not things of mere stone, brick, and
mortar, which pleased him most in the Queen of the West. Imperial
Rome had her palaces and noble structures, but in her proudest days
she boasted not of a Mechanics' Institute, an Academy of Natural
Sciences, a Mercantile Library Association, or a Young Mens' Lyceum
of Natural History. These are the pride of Cincinnati, these her noblest
works. Grateful as we ought to be, and are, for the kindness and
courtesy shown us as members of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, we are more thankful to the Cincinnatians for
having founded her literary and scientific associations, and for liberally
opening her treasuries of knowledge to the world.
Among the many visits to the city in 1851, was that of
Lord Morpeth, the Right Honorable the Earl of Carlisle,
whose tour through this country made a great stir in
social, political, and other circles. In the lectures pro-
nounced and printed after his return home, he said the
following of the Queen City :
I again turned my face to the west, and passed Cincinnati, which,
together with all that I saw of the State of Ohio, seemed to me the part
of the Union where, if obliged to make the choice, I should like best to
fix my abode. It has a great share of the civilization and appliances of
the old-settled States of the east, with the richer soil, the softer climate,
the fresher spring of life, which distinguish the west. It had, besides,
to me the great attraction of being the first free State which I reached
on my return from the region of slavery ; and the contrast in the ap-
pearance of prosperity and progress is just what a friend of freedom
would always wish it to be. One of my visitors at Cincinnati told me
he remembered when the town only contained a few log cabins ; when
I was there it had fifty thousand [!] inhabitants. I shall not easily for-
get an evening yiew from a neighboring hill, over loamy cornfields,
woody knolls, and even some vineyards, just where the Miami river dis-
charges its gentle stream into the ample Ohio.
The city this year had a population of one hundred
and thirty-two thousand three hundred thirty-three, an
increase of nearly seventeen thousand upon the census
of the year before.
May 23d, Horatio Wells, of the Cincinnati type foun-
dry, was accidentally shot.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY- TWO.
The population of the city had now mounted to one
hundred and forty-five thousand five hundred and sixty-
three, an increase of thirteen thousand two hundred and
thirty-three, or nearly twelve per cent, upon that of the
previous year.
May 4th, the eighteenth anniversary of the Young
Men's Mercantile Library association was observed with
much eclat. A poem was recited by Thomas Buchanan
Read, and the Hon. J. T. Morehead delivered an address
upon the Growth of Commerce in the West.
The same day was characterized by a widely different
transaction — the murder of William Church by Henry
Le Count, for which the assassin suffered the extreme
penalty of the law on the twenty-sixth of the ensuing
December. This was the first private execution under
the statute requiring privacy, and was in the jail-yard,
about which surged an immense multitude, while there
were many onlookers from the windows which com-
manded a view of the scene.
This was the year of Kossuth's tour in the United
States, in the course of which he visited Cincinnati.
Francis Pulszky, his compatriot and fellow-traveller,
makes the following notes of the visit, in the book of
Sketches of American Society published by himself when
the tour was over. Says Pulszky:
I preceded Kossuth thither, in order to deprecate on his part all costly
processions, pageantry and banquets; and as he was exhausted already
by speeches, I wished to arrange matters so that he should onlv once
address the multitude, and once those who had formed themselves into
associations of friends of Hungary.
But as soon as I was introduced to the committee of arrangements,
I saw that my diplomacy must fail. Thirty gentlemen belonged to that
body, and the great question was just under discussion whether, be-
sides the mayor of the city, it should be the chairman of the city coun-
cil, or the chairman of the committee of arrangements, who was to
occupy the carriage with the ' city's guest ' at the festive entry. I do
not remember how this grave concern was settled; but, of course, it
was impossible under such circumstances to carry the proposal that no
procession should be held. Besides, every coterie claimed a separate
speech; and the result was that Kossuth had to address 'the Big peo-
ple' of Cincinnati at a banquet, and others again at 'Nixon's hall,'
and then the ladies and the Northern Germans, and the Southern Ger-
mans, and the fashionable public at large, and the lower classes at
large, and likewise the inhabitants of Covington, the suburbs of Cin-
cinnati on the Kentucky side.
But this was not the only consequence of the want of homogeneity
in the population of Cincinnati. Kossuth several times requested the
members of the committee to allow that he should himself bear his
own expenses, and that the appropriation made for his entertainment
by the city council, which had invited him, should be given to the
Hungarian fund, The committeemen declined to comply with his de-
sire; it seemed to them mean to do it. We left Cincinnati; and Mr.
Coleman, the lessee of the Burnet Honse— the splendid hotel in which
we had been accommodated— presented his bill to the city council.
Some other remarks of Pulszky's are in better temper :
American grandiloquence is too well-known. We can scarcely sup-
press a smile, when every westerner whom we meet, assures us in the
first moment of our acquaintance, that America is a great country.
But when we see Cincinnati, with its one hundred and thirty thousand
inhabitants, its extensive commerce and navigation; the canal connect-
ing the Ghi with Lake Erie; the railways radiating in every direction
from this common centre; its schools and colleges; its astronomical
observatory; its ninety-two churches and chapels; its ten daily papers,
and its numerous beneficent institutions; and when we remember that
in 1788 this city was laid out in the wilderness, we must excuse the
boast of the American. He has full right to pride himself on his nation
and on its energies. After the difficulties he has surmounted, and with
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
IOl
the self-confidence they have inspired in him, he does not know the
limit which could stop his progress.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE.
Estimated population, one hundred and sixty-five thou-
sand; other figures report it more specifically at one hun-
dred and sixty-one thousand one hundred and eighty-six
— a large increase in either case.
The city building, between Plum and Qentral avenue,
on Eighth street, was erected this year, two hundred and
five feet long and fifty-two feet wide.— The ground and
park- in front cost sixty thousand dollars, the building
about twenty-seven thousand dollars. It is still occupied
by the city offices, though long since insufficient and un-
fit for their purposes. The park comprises about one
and a quarter acres.
On the ninth of December a remarkable criminal
trial, known in the bar traditions as the " Kissane forgery
case," came up for hearing and determination.
Cincinnati had at least one distinguished visitor this
year, in William Chambers, the renowned Edinburgh au-
thor and publisher. In the inevitable book that fol-
lowed he remarked of Cincinnati, among other things :
Public education being enjoined and liberally provided for by the
laws of Ohio, the stranger who takes any interest in such matters will
find in Cincinnati numerous schools worthy of his notice, in which in-
struction of the best quality is imparted without charge to all pupils
indiscriminately. Where free education exists in England, it is a
charity; here it is a right. The natural fruit of a system so exceed-
ingly bounteous is an educated population, possessing tastes and as-
pirations which seek a solacement in literature from the materialities of
every-day life. I do not know that I ever saw a town of its size so well
provided as Cincinnati with publishers, libraries and reading-rooms.
The Young Men's Mercantile Library association has a most imposing
suite of apartments fitted up as a library and reading-room — the num-
ber of books amounting to fourteen thousand volumes, and the reading
room showing a display of desks, on which are placed nearly a hundred
newspapers. Cincinnati is, I believe, also favorably known for its cul-
tivation of the fine arts; and its exhibition of pictures, at any rate,_ shows
that its inhabitants do not employ all their time in mere money-making.
In the cathedral of St. Peter there are some valuable paintings by Eu-
ropean artists; one, by Murillo, having been a gift from Cardinal Fesch.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR.
May 5 th, the new superior court was organized, with
Bellamy Storer, Oliver M. Spencer, and W. Y. Gholson,
as judges.
May 26th a citizen named Arrison was murdered by
means of an infernal machine.
July 27th is the date of a notable event in the organ-
ization of the fire department of the city — the public trial
of the steam fire engine Citizen's Gift, built in Cincinnati
and paid for by a popular subscription.
The population is set down this year at one hundred
and seventy thousand and fifty seven.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE.
Population one hundred and seventy-two thousand
three hundred and seventy. Growth is slower, and the
rate of increase now falls off year by year.
On Washington's birthday a grand "dramatic festival"
or performance is given at the National theatre, on Syca-
more street, for the benefit of the poor. A number of
well known citizens take part as amateurs; among them
Charles Anderson, Judge Flinn, William H. Lytle, Wil-
liam B. Cassily, and Martin B. Coombs. Four thousand
dollars are realized from the receipts.
April 5th there is a sharp fight "over the Rhine" be-
tween the Know Nothings and the Germans. On the
tenth — city election day — there is a mob in the Elev-
enth ward, which destroys a ballot-box and scatters the
contents.
June 14th, an accident occurs in the course of excava-
tion of the Walnut Hills railway tunnel, which kills five
men.
August 28th, occurs the opening of the Cincinnati,
Wilmington & Zanesville railroad.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX.
The estimate of population for this year, which is also
continued for the next, is one hundred and seventy-four
thousand. If this statement be correct, or approximate
correctness, the town was virtually at a stand-still for one
year.
February 2d, a vote was given by the citizens, author-
izing the loan of the city's credit to the amount of six
hundred thousand dollars, to the Ohio & Mississippi rail-
road.
April 4th, Police Lieutenant Parker loses his life at the
hands of an assassin.
May 20th, the Daily Times publishes the names of fif-
teen residents of Cincinnati, then still surviving, who had
lived in the city fifty years or more, and were all more
than seventy years old ; thirteen others had lived here
thirty to fifty years; forty-three were sixty to seventy years
old, and had lived here over thirty years ; and thirty-four
more, not so old, had lived in Cincinnati more than that
period. The pioneers were largely'of hardy, long-lived
stock. A number of additional names were sent in by a
correspondent the next day.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN.
May 29th, the city council passes an ordinance prohib-
itory of the sale of liquor on Sunday, by a vote of twenty-
six to seven. On the twenty-eighth, Jacob W. Piatt dies.
On the thirtieth, there is great excitement over a fugitive
slave case, in the course of which the United States mar-
shal is stabbed, but not killed.
June 24th, grand railroad excursions start for St. Louis,
New York, and Boston, to celebrate the opening of the
Ohio & Mississippi and the Marietta & Cincinnati rail-
roads.
July 2, a very destructive fire occurs, laying in ashes
Resor's stave factory, Johnston & Meader's furniture
factory, and other establishments, with a total loss of
two hundred thousand dollars. On the twenty-second
occurs the Loefner murder and suicide, in which Nicho-
las T. Horton also loses his life by the hand of violence.
A great coal famine prevailed at one. time this year;
and fuel of no other kind being available in sufficient
quantity to afford relief, the price of coal rose to seventy-
five and eighty cents a bushel. All classes, except the
coal dealers, were much embarrassed by it, and the poor
suffered terribly, in some cases actually burning furniture,
partitions, fences, and whatever else was at hand that
was combustible. In this exigency considerable pres-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
sure was brought to bear upon the city council to vote
relief — a measure headed by Hon. Benjamin Eggleston,
then chairman of the finance committee of the council.
After much opposition a vote of one hundred thousand
dollars was obtained, not as a gift, but as a fund for use
in lifting the blockade. A meeting of presidents of all
the railways leading into Cincinnati was held and ar-
rangements consummated for the exclusive use of their
freight trains for a few days in the transportation of coal.
This soon afforded relief. Deliveries at first were limited
to three bushels, at twenty-five cents per bushel, which
represented actual cost; and were increased as larger
supplies were received. When accounts were finally
adjusted the balance against the city was very small,
while a vast amount of good had been done.
A similar event occurred in 1863; but in this case an
absolute grant of one hundred thousand dollars was
made, which was paid out weekly to the needy in small
sums, chiefly to the families of soldiers in the army.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT.
An official census, taken this year, gives the city an enu-
meration of one hundred and seventy-five thousand nine
hundred and sixty-eight. The original Pike's Opera
House is erected, to the great delight of the citizens.
The report of the Superintendent of the Merchant's Ex-
change says : "The most splendid opera house in the
whole country has been built. Whole squares have been
so changed by replacing the old buildings by new as not to
be recognized, new streets have been opened, and the city
rapidly extended over the available space on the west."
February 29th, Captain J. B. Summons, a prominent
citizen, exchanges time for eternity.
April 13th, John Mitchell's chair factory is burned, and
William Gaither accidentally, killed. On the twenty-
second, Pryor P. Lee, engineer at the Cincinnati Type
Foundry, was badly hurt by the explosion of an infernal
machine. A gas explosion also occurred this year in the
basement of the Radical Methodist Church on Sixth
street, and a number were severely injured.
May 9th, Gregory is murdered by Kendall.
October 21st, Augustus Ward murders John Mortimer.
The city had a visit this year from the famous English
poet, Charles Mackay. He devoted to Cincinnati a
pleasant letter of some length, but it is hardly so interest-
ing to read as some of the older accounts of travelers.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINE.
The last of Mr. Cist's valuable volumes was published
this year, under the title of Cincinnati in 1859. We ob-
tain from it much of the information which follows. He
estimates the local population at two hundred and twenty-
five thousand, which must have included all the suburbs,
since an enumeration before us, purporting to be official,
places the number of inhabitants at only one hundred and
seventy-eight thousand three hundred and fifteen. The
colored population had been reduced from a ratio in
1840 of one in twenty to one in thirty-seven. The centre
of population in the United States had approached nearer
to Cincinnati, the exact centre being a little below Ma-
rietta.
The city now had a river front of about six miles, with
an average depth to the north corporation line of one
and one-fifth miles. Its area was four thousand five
hundred and twenty-one acres, of which about one-quar-
ter, or one thousand one hundred and twenty-six acres in
the north part, was not subdivided into city lots. This,
however, was more than made good by the suburbs on
the east, west, and north, which were almost as com-
pactly built as the city itself. The number of brick
buildings, but twenty-two per cent, of the whole in 18 15,
was now eighty per cent. It was thought that there was
no city in the world, equal or greater in population, in
which there was so large a share of resident property-
holders. A marked improvement in the style of public
buildings was noted. Among the more recently built
were Pike's Opera House, then considered the finest
public building built by private resources in the world,
the Central Presbyterian church, and the Masonic
temple. 1 he Carlisle building and Shillito's former store
are also mentioned in terms of praise; also the compara-
tively new post office and custom house at the corner of
Vine and Fourth streets,, and the Marine hospital on the
corner of Lock and Six'jji."- _, ; "t
The vine culture had"begn greatly extended within
twenty miles of the city, two thousand acres being covered
with vineyards, and four hundred- thousand gallons of
wine made per year. Cincinnati 'fe'ad become, probably,
the most extensive manufacturing eity in the country.
The capital and yearly expenses invested in manufactures
and mechanical operations were estimated at ninety
million dollars, with a profit of thirty-three and one-third
per cent., or thirty million dollars. Forty-five thousand
persons were engaged in this department of industry,
while five thousand six hundred were in trade and com-
merce, handling values of eighty million dollars, upon
which ten millions were realized, or a profit of twelve and
one-half per cent. The value of manufactured products
for the year was one hundred and twelve million, two
hundred and fifty-four thousand four hundred dollars,
against fifty-four million, five hundred and fifty thousand .
one hundred and thirty-four dollars in 1851, and seven-
teen million, seven hundred and eighty thousand and
thirty-three dollars ten years before. The average value
of raw materials was but fifty per cent, of the entire pro-
duct. The imports of the year were expected to reach
eighty-five millions, and exports ninety millions, giving a
"balance of trade" in favor of Cincinnati of five millions.
The railway lines running into the city now were the
Little Miami, the Marietta & Cincinnati, the Cincin-
nati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Cincinnati & Indiana, and
the Ohio & Mississippi. The place was in full connec-
tion with three thousand two hundred and thirty-two
miles of railroad, and four thousand seven hundred and
eighty-nine miles of connecting lines were under way.
Near Cincinnati the Dayton & State Line and the Cin-
cinnati & Indiana Junction were in preparation.
The city had two banks, one savings bank, eight pri-
vate banks, and one emigrant and remittance office.'
Insurance had been largely developed, and there were
sixteen local companies and forty-three foreign compa-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
i°3
nies represented. The higher interests of the community
had kept pace with the material in their march. In jour-
nalism, there were nine daily newspapers, twenty-two
weeklies, six semi-monthlies, thirteen monthlies, and two
annuals — a very fine exhibit for nearly a quarter of a cen-
tury ago. Much had been done for science, literature,
and art. The Ohio Mechanics' institute had nine hun-
dred and fifty .members, and was handsomely lodged in
its building on the corner of Vine and Sixth. The Cin-
cinnati Horticultural society's fairs, then held every spring
and fall, were very popular, and the society was doing a
good work in its province. A great deal of excellent
work in astronomy was being done by Professor Mitchel
and his pupils at the observatory. The Young Men's
Mercantile Library association had three thousand and
seventy members, and a collection of nearly twenty thou-
sand volumes, with an annual circulation of forty-five
thousand. The feeling toward fine art had been im-
proved; and Mr. William Wiswell, at No. 70 West Fourth
street, was devoting the whole lower floor of his building
to a free art gallery, which had become a familiar resort,
especially of evenings.
Education was also far advanced. The public schools
employed two hundred and seventy-eight teachers, which
was twice as many as in 1850, and four times as many as
in 1840. There was sixteen fine school buildings, hold-
ing about nine hundred pupils apiece; and instruction
was also given at public expense in the city infirmary and
the orphan asylum. The Woodward high school had six
teachers and one hundred and seventy-six pupils; the
Hughes high school as many teachers and one hun-
dred and fifty-nine pupils. The lower schools in-
cluded twenty district, four intermediate, and six night
district schools. There was also one night high school
and one normal school. The expense of all for 1858-was
one hundred and thirty-eight thousand six hundred and
five dollars. The Roman Catholic parochial schools had
seventy-eight teachers and seven hundred and seventy-
five pupils; private schools and academies over one hun-
dred and fifty teachers and four thousand students.
The most prominent of these were the Wesleyan Female
college, the Cincinnati Female seminary, the Mount Au-
burn Young Ladies' institute, Herron's seminary for
boys, the English and Classical school, the Law school
in Cincinnati college, St. Xavier's college, six medical
colleges, and Bartlett's Commercial college.
May 6th, the local bar loses one of its prominent mem-
bers, W. R. Morris, esq., by death.
May 16th, Johnson & Meader's furniture factory burns
again, with ten other buildings.
August 20th, the Dayton and Michigan railroad is
opened, giving Cincinnati new connections with Toledo
and Detroit.
September 29th, the "Little Giant" from Illinois, Hon.
Stephen A. Douglas, then in training for a nomination to
the Presidency the next year, visits the city and is warmly
received by his friends and admirers.
CHAPTER XV.
CINCINNATI'S EIGHTH DECADE.
The former half of this was filled with the prologue,
the acts, and the epilogue of the great drama of civil war.
The events of every one of its years, in Cincinnati and
Hamilton county, that are worthy of public record, re-
late almost solely to this; and we have but a meagre rec-
ord besides for this decade. Special chapters will be
given, directly after these brief notes, to the part which
Cincinnati played in the enactment of the mighty tragedy.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY.
The United States census enumerated the total popu-
lation of the city as one hundred and sixty-one thousand
and forty-four. The population by wards, as in other
years, will be found in a table below.
This was the year of the visit of the Prince of Wales and
his illustrious party to Cincinnati, in the course of their tour
through the United States. They came on the special
invitation of Mayor Bishop, and were of course elegantly
entertained while here.
In January came to the Queen City the excursion of
the legislatures of Kentucky and Tennessee, upon the
occasion of the completion of the Louisville & Nashville
railroad, which soon afterwards was to prove so service-
able to the cause of the Union, in the transportation of
men and the material of war. The Solons went on to
Columbus, by way of Xenia, returned to this city by way
of Dayton, and thence to their homes.
On the third of March a lamentable accident occurred
at the new St. Xavier's church, on Sycamore street, in
the falling of an extensive wall, burying no less than six-
teen persons in its ruins — a degree of fatality almost, if
not quite, unequaled in the history of similar accidents.
April 18th, the Young Men's Mercantile Library asso-
ciation completed its twenty-fifth year, and celebrated a
"Silver Festival" in consequence.
May 2d, a great hurricane sweeps over and through
Cincinnati, unroofing buildings and inflicting many other
but mostly petty losses.
On the twenty -fourth of that month, the street railroads
were relieved by the council of the per capita tax which
had theretofore been imposed.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE.
Three hundred and thirty-six new buildings were put
up this year — three hundred and nine of brick and stone,
and twenty-seven of wood.
January 9th, officers Long and Hallam, of the police
force, were killed by the Lohrers, father and son. On
the twenty-fifth Patrick McHugh was hanged for the mur-
der of his wife.
In February President-elect Lincoln passed through
Cincinnati on his way to Washington to be inaugurated.
Mayor Bishop made . a reception speech, to which Mr.
Lincoln replied in terms suited to the momentous crisis
then impending.
April 13th, comes the news of the bombardment of
Fort Sumter, awakening intense indignation and the de-
sire for speedy and adequate punishment of the South for
104
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
its aggressions. Camp Harrison is soon opened for the
reception of volunteers, on the race-ground near Cummins-
ville. On the eighteenth, the conflict having fully opened,
the city council votes two hundred thousand dollars to
the war fund.
May ist, a committee of public safety for the city was
appointed. On the seventeenth, General Robert Ander-
son, returning from his luckless post at Sumter, was given
an enthusiastic public reception for his meritorious con-
duct there.
June 20th, the Indiana regiments passing through Cin-
cinnati were fed at the Fifth street market house.
August 2d, occurred the first reception to the returning
volunteers of the three months regiments. There was,
less joy and enthusiasm on the twenty-ninth, when the
body of Major General Lyon, killed in the battle of Wil-
son's creek, near Springfield, Missouri, was received with
military honors.
September 27th, an uneasy feeling having prevailed for
some time in regard to possible danger from the direction
of Kentucky, measures were taken, but not carried to
completion, to fortify the city.
October ist, came the first sad sight of the arrival of
wounded soldiers from the front of battle.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO. .'
January 24th marked the greatest height of. another
tremendous freshet in the Ohio, which reached within Ta
few feet of the high-water mark of 1832.
February 17th, was celebrated the glorious victory of
Fort Donelson.
March 10th, death of the well known poet, one of
the most notable ever resident in Cincinnati, W. W. Fos-
dick. On the 20th a soldiers' home is opened in the
Trollopean Bazaar. On the 25th a disturbance occurs
at Pike's opera house, in consequence of a lecture there
on public affairs by Mr. Wendell Phillips.
July 1 8th, a state of alarm prevails in the city in con-
sequence of rebel movements in Kentucky. A raid by
John Morgan upon the city is expected, and preparations
are made for defence. On the second a great war meet-
ing had occurred at the Fifth street market place.
August nth, citizens and soldiers attend in large num-
bers the funeral of Colonel Robert L. McCook, murdered
by guerrillas while riding sick in an ambulance in advance
of his troops, in southern Tennessee. A bust of heroic
size was afterwards set up to his memory in Washington
parjc.
September 2d, genuine and well-based alarm again pre-
vails in consequence of the apparent advance on Cincin-
nati of a rebel force in Kentucky, under Generals Kirby
Smith and Heath. On the fourth martial law is pro-
claimed in the city, and before the next day has gone
the city is full of volunteers. Ample preparations are
made here and back of Covington for resistance. The
famous "squirrel hunters'" campaign follows. By the
fourteenth the alarm is mainly over, and the militia are
ordered home by the Governor.
An enumeration of population this year, founded
upon the school census, the Directory, or some other ba-
sis of estimates, yields a total of one hundred and eighty-
four thousand five hundred and seventeen.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE.
Population this year, by official estimate, one hundred
and eighty-six thousand three hundred and twenty-nine.
New Year's Day the great sanitary fair, for the benefit
of sick and wounded soldiers, was opened, and culmi-
nated in a magnificent success. Its operations will be
detailed at some length in the next chapter.
In January died Mrs. Mary Barr, who had been a res-
ident of the city since 1809 — fifty-four years.
April 4th, the order for the re-organization of the State
militia, under the name of the Ohio National Guard, was
received.
May 5th, the place of amusement known as the Palace
Varieties was burned. On the fifteenth of the same
month, the operations of the first draft for the army be-
gan in Cincinnati.
The John Morgan raid through Hamilton county and
southern Ohio generally, occurs in early July, and creates
great excitement in Cincinnati. It is made the subject
of a chapter in part I of this work.
The Plum street railway depot — four hundred feet by
sixty-four — was erected this year.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR.
This year the present Cincinnati, Hamilton, & Dayton
depot — four hundred by sixty — was put up at the corner
of Fifth and Hoadly streets, reaching through to Sixth.
Very little of stirring interest happened this year,
apart from the events of the war. The principal scenes
of conflict were now far away — in northern Georgia and
by the rivers of Virginia — and it was a comparatively
quiet year for Cincinnati.
The estimate of population for the year is one hun-
dred and ninety-three thousand, seven hundred and
nineteen.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE.
The estimate is increased this year to a round two
hundred thousand — probably too great, as all the esti-
mates and professed enumerations thereafter, until the
official census of 1870, which shows the incorrectness of
Ihe figures for a number of previous years.
A liberal system of public improvements was devised
and entered upon by the city authorities after the close
of the war, to remedy defects and neglects which were
inevitable during the continuance of the great struggle.
It included the present magnificent and costly structures
occupied by the Cincinnati Hospital, the Workhouse,
and the House of Refuge.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX.
Estimate of population, two hundred and ten thou-
sand, eight hundred and sixty-six.
January 27th, the police and fire alarm telegraph, for
which a persistent pressure had been kept up for years,
was completed and successfully put in operation.
March 2 2d, the superb opera house erected by Samuel
N. Pike was destroyed by fire. It had two thousand sit-
tings, and on the occasion of Christine Nilsson's first
4^^^ cf.cfcrli^Cr
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
i°5
appearance in the city, had held three thousand and
three hundred people. Its destruction recalled the lines
of Mr. T. Buchanan Read, the poet-artist, to Mr. Pike:
Who builds a noble temple unto Art,
And rears it grandly from the head and heart,
Hath done a noble service, and his name
Shall live upon the golden roll of Fame.
April 3d, deceased Mr. M. D. Potter, the senior pro-
prietor of the Commercial.
June 8th, a successful swindle was perpetrated upon
the Third National bank, whereby it lost the sum of
four thousand five hundred dollars.
July nth, another calamity happens to the music and
amusement-loving people of Cincinnati, in the burning
of the Academy of Music building.
The cholera visits the city again this year, and with
terribly destructive effect. The total number of deaths
from this cause here was two thousand and twenty-eight
— one in every ninety-five and seventy-four hundredths
population, or ten and forty-four hundredths in every
thousand. On the thirteenth of August there are eighty-
six deaths by cholera.
August 21st, the splendid Jewish temple, K. K. Benai
Jeshurun, at the corner of Eighth and Plum streets, was
dedicated.
December 1st the great Suspension Bridge is at last
opened to foot travel.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN.
New Year's day had a very satisfactory celebration for
the people of Cincinnati and the Kentucky suburbs, in
the full opening of the suspension bridge to all kinds of
carriage as well as foot travel.
April 4th, three criminals, George Goetz, Alexander
Aulgus, and Samuel Carr, are hanged for the murder of
James Hughes.
Estimate of population for the year, two hundred and
twenty thousand five hundred. This, and the two esti-
mates which follow in this decade, are greater than the
official footings of 1870. The new buildings of the year
counted up one thousand three hundred and seventy-
two.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHT.
Estimate of the population, two hundred and thirty-
five thousand. The bonded debt of the city was now
four million five hundred and seven thousand dollars,
having increased one million forty-seven thousand five
hundred dollars within a year, during about which time
had been erected the workhouse and the hospital, the
greater part of the Eggleston Avenue sewer had been
laid, and a material increase in the facilities afforded by
the water-works had been made. The hospital alone,
which was occupied this year, cost seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. The aggregate estimated value of
property in the city was eleven million three hundred
and fifty thousand dollars.
June 1 8th, a great thunder-storm occurred, during
which several houses in the city were struck by lightning,
and one burned.
On the ninth of July the Varieties theatre was the vic-
tim of the fire-fiend.
November 4th, a public building, devoted to a very
different purpose, the Widows' Home, was also burned.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE.
The estimated population for this year was put in round
numbers at a quarter of a million — too great, probably,
by nearly forty thousand. The city now, according to
Mr. George E. Stevens's book on Cincinnati, from which
we condense the following statements, was the largest and
wealthiest inland city in America. Although but eighty
years old, it had reached a population as great as Phila-
delphia had after one hundred and sixty years' settle-
ment, and as New York had in 1833. It was "moving
steadily and compactly forward to a magnificent future."
It "is destined to become the focus and mart for the
grandest circle of manufacturing thrift on this continent,
the Edinburgh of a new Scotland, the
Boston of a new New England, the Paris of a new
France." Mill creek was still the western boundary, but
the river front was nearly ten miles long, and the north
line of the city was more than two miles from low-water
mark. The front margin of the lower plateau, originally
a steep bank, had been wholly graded down to a gentle
declivity, and much of the surface drainage of the city
passed directly into the river. The wholesale business
was chiefly on Main, Walnut, Vine, Second, and Pearl
streets; the retail trade on Fourth, Fifth, and Central
avenue. The great staples of the Cincinnati markets —
iron, cotton, tobacco, sugar, etc. — were mainly on Front,
Water, and Second streets. Pearl street was largely oc-
cupied by dry goods, notions, clothing, and boot and
shoe stores. Third was then, as now, the Wall street of
Cincinnati, containing many of the banks, insurance and
law offices, etc. The city had four magnificent retail
shopping establishments. Some superb new buildings
had gone up, including those we have named, and also
the St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, at the corner
of Seventh and Smith streets. There were in all one
hundred and nineteen churches. The Tyler-Davidson
fountain was in progress. The Garden of Eden park had
been surveyed, and a force was occupied in grading it.
Large part of the work on the great reservoir in the park
for the water-works, had been done. A satisfactory in-
crease had been observed in the numerous branches of
productive industry followed in the city. The total esti-
mated value of products for the year was fifty million dol-
lars. About twenty-five thousand children were in the
public schools, and twelve thousand more in private and
parochial schools and seminaries of learning, among which
were now two theological seminaries. The death rate
per year was only eighteen and five one-hundredths in
one thousand of population; and from the single cause
of consumption only nine and forty-eight one-hundredths
per cent, of the deaths occurred, against fourteen and
two one-hundredths in New York city, and fifteen and
thirty-eight one-hundredths in Philadelphia. The fire
department was regarded in efficiency as above any other
on the face of the earth, and the previous year there had
been a remarkable exemption from destructive fires in
Cincinnati,
io6
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
The first seven months of 1869 were comparatively de-
void of interesting events. August was characterized by
several, however. On the third was opened, in the new
Sinton building, near the Burnet House, the Exposition
of Textile Fabrics, which pioneered the magnificent series
of industrial expositions that have since followed. A
pretty full history of this notable success, and the annual
fairs succeeding, will be found in another chapter. On
the thirty-first of the month, a party of fifty-three Cin-
cinnatians, about one-third of them ladies, and. including
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Buchanan and many other promi-
nent residents, started on an excursion to California, by
way of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette, Toledo,
Wabash & Western, Hannibal & St. Joseph, St. Joseph
& Council Bluffs, Union Pacific, and Central Pacific
railroads. The project was started among the members
of the Chamber of Commerce, the number going limited
to sixty, and the expense of round-trip tickets to three
hundred dollars each. Most of the party returned in a
body October 8th, after an extremely agreeable tour. A
neat little book was afterwards made of the letters con-
tributed by a correspondent with the party to the Cin-
cinnati Commercial.
On the twentieth of October the College building, on
Walnut street, was again desolated by fire. The Mer-
cantile Library suffered much by the flames, water, and
hasty removal, and other institutions in the structure sus-
tained serious loss.
This year occurred the celebrated struggle over the
Bible reading practised in the public schools. It began
at a regular meeting of the School Board September 6th,
in a proposition for the union of the Roman Catholic
schools with the public schools, and an amendment
offered to prohibit the oral reading of religious books, in-
cluding the Bible, before the pupils of the schools. The
subsequent transactions are detailed in our special chap-
ter on Education.
CHAPTER XVI.
CINCINNATI IN THE WAR.
The Queen City found herself, with all her great ad-
vantages of situation for commercial and other purposes,
peculiarly and quite unhappily placed at the outset of the
great war of the Rebellion. Her growth had been largely
the result of Southern trade; her business connections
with the South, by river and rail, were extensive and val-
uable; while her social connections, through the large
immigration from some of the slave States to Cincinnati,
in all periods of her history, through the intermarriage
of many Cincinnatians with Southern families, and
through interchanges of visits and courtesies, were ex-
ceedingly numerous and powerful. Mr. Parton says, in
his little aitid- in the Atlantic Monthly (February, 1863),
on the "Siege of Cincinnati," that many leading families
in the city were in sympathy with the Rebellion, and
that there were few which did not have at least one mem-
ber in its armies. But, he adds, "the great mass of the
people knew not a moment of hesitation, and a tide of
patriotic feeling set in which silenced, expelled, or con-
verted the adherents of the Rebellion." The old busi-
ness relations with the South were speedily broken up,
and the city soon began to reap a great pecuniary harvest
by the supply of gunboats and military stores in immense
quantity, and by the various labors incident to the estab-
lishment and maintenance of camps and the movement
of troops.
Cincinnati, by her local situation, had also much cause
for fear. It was by far the largest and richest city of a
northern State upon the border of a slave State. By its
wealth, and the value of the contents of its banks, its
warehouses, and manufactories, to the Confederacy, as
well as by its steadfast and abounding loyalty, its -zeal
and activity in support of the Union cause, the vengeance
to be wreaked and the prestige to be gained by its fall, it
offered a standing and very great temptation to the Con-
federate arms for capture and plunder. The most nota-
ble facts of its war history are the menace delivered from
the southward by the rebel generals in the summer of
1862, and that from the westward and northward by John
Morgan a year later. Happily, it was delivered from all
its dangers to the end; but the peril was none the less
real and palpable during nearly every year, and in many-
months of the war. It was keenly felt at the dread be-
ginning; and when, in April, 1861, at the recommenda-
tion of Captain George B. McClellan, then the young
president of the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, his friend and
former comrade, Captain Nathaniel Pope, of the regular
army, proceeded to Columbus to give military advice to
Governor Dennison, he had little to suggest except the
purchase of some big columbiads for the defence of
Cincinnati, to be mounted upon the hills on the Ohio
side, since nothing of the kind could be done in Ken-
tucky, which was then assuming a position of armed neu-
trality. The Governor, with some reasonable doubts,
signed the order for the guns, and they were bought;
but history is silent as to the further part they played in
the suppression of the Rebellion.
The position of Kentucky was of eminent importance
to the safety of Cincinnati, and for some time excited
great uneasiness, which was measurably relieved by the
assurance of Judge Thomas M. Key, of the Ohio State
Senate, who had been sent to interview Governor Ma-
goffin, that the Kentucky executive dwelt particularly
upon "his firm purpose to permit nothing to be done
that could be viewed as menacing the city of Cincinnati."
The people of the city, however, were by no means dis-
posed, in consequence of this assurance, to grant any
concessions to treason. Mr. Reid says, in his "Ohio in
the War":
The first note of war from the east threw Cincinnati into a spasm of
alarm. Her great warehouses, her foundries and machine shops, her
rich moneyed institutions, were all a tempting prize to the confederates,
to whom Kentucky was believed to be drifting. Should Kentucky go,
only the Ohio river would remain between the great city and the needy
enemy, and there were absolutely no provisions for defense.
The first alarm expended itself, as has already been seen, in the pur-
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
107
chase of huge columbiads, with which it was probably intended that
Walnut Hills should be fortified. There next sprang up a feverish
spirit of active patriotism that soon led to complications. For the citi-
zens, not being accustomed to draw nice distinctions or in a temper to
permit anything whereby their danger might be increased, could see
little difference between the neutral treason of Kentucky to the Govern-
ment and the more open treason of the seceded States. They accord-
ingly insisted that shipments of produce, and especially shipments of
arms, ammunition, or other articles contraband of war, to Kentucky
should instantly cease.
The citizens of Louisville, taking alarm at this threatened blow at
their very existence, sent up a large delegation to protest against the
stoppage of shipments from Ohio. They were received in the council
chamber of the city hall, on the morning of April 23d. The city
mayor, Mr. Hatch, announced the object of their meeting, and called
upon Mr. Rufus King to state the position of the city and State au-
thorities. Mr. King dwelt upon the friendship of Ohio for Kentucky
in the old strain, and closed by reading a letter which the mayor had
procured from Governor Dennison, of which the essential part was as
follows :
"My views of the subject suggested in your message are these: So
long as any State remains in the Union, with professions of attachment
to it, we cannot discriminate between that State and our own. In the
contest we must be clearly in the right in every act, and I think it bet-
ter that we should risk something than that we should, in the slightest
degree, be chargeable with anything tending to create a rupture with
any State which has not declared itself already out of the Union. To
seize arms going to a State v. hich has not actually seceded, could give
a pretext for the assertion that we had inaugurated hostile conduct,
and might be used to create a popular feeling in favor of secession where
it would not exist, and end in border warfare, which all good citizens
must deprecate. Until there is such circumstantial evidence as to cre-
ate a moral certainty of an immediate intention to use arms against us,
I would not be willing to order their seizure; much' less would I be wil-
ling to interfere with the transportation of provisions."
"Now," said Mr. King, " this is a text to which every citizen of Ohio
must subscribe, coming as it does from the head of the State. I do
not feel the least hesitation in saying that it expresses the feeling of the
people of Ohio. "
But the people of Ohio did not subscribe to it. Even in the meeting
Judge Bellamy Storer, though very guarded in his expressions, inti-
mated, in the course of his stirring speech, the dissatisfaction with the
attitude of Kentucky. "This is no time,'' he said, "for soft words.
We feel, as you have a right to feel, that you have a governor who can-
not be depended upon in this crisis. But it is on the men of Kentucky
that we rely. All we want to know is whether you are for the Union,
without reservation. Brethren of Kentucky ! The men of the North
have been your friends, and they still desire to be. But I will speak
plainly. There have been idle taunts thrown out that they are cowardly
and timid. The North submits; the North obeys; but beware! There
is a point which cannot be passed. While we rejoice in your friendship,
while we glory in your bravery, we would have you understand that we
are your equals as well as your friends. ''
To all this the only response of the Kentuckians, through their
spokesman, Judge Bullock, was ' ' that Kentucky wished to take no part
in the unhappy struggle; that she wished to be a mediator, and meant
to retain friendly relations with all her sister States. But he was greatly
gratified with Governor Dennison 's letter."
The citizens of Cincinnati were not. Four days later, when their in-
dignation had come to take shape, they held a large meeting, whereat
excited speeches were made and resolutions passed deprecating the
letter, calling upon the governor to retract it, declaring that it was too
late to draw nice distinctions between open rebellion and armed neu-
trality against the Union, and that armed neutrality was rebellion to the
Government. At the close an additional resolution was offered, which
passed amid a whirlwind of applause :
' ' Resolved, That any men, or set of men, in Cincinnati or elsewhere,
who knowingly sell or ship one ounce of flour or pound of provisions, or
any arms or articles which are contraband of war, to any person or any
State which has not declared its firm determination to sustain the Gov-
ernment in the present crisis, is a traitor, and deserves the doom of a
traitor."
So clear and unshrinking was the first voice from the great conserva-
tive city of the southern border, whose prosperity was supposed to de-
pend on the southern trade. They had reckoned idly, it seemed, who
had counted on hesitation here. From the first day that the war was
opened, the people of Cincinnati were as vehement in their determina-
tion that it should be relentlessly prosecuted to victory, as the people of
Boston.
They immediately began the organization of home guards, armed
and drilled vigorously, took oaths to serve the Government when they
were called upon, and devoted themselves to the suppression of any
contraband trade with the southern States. The steamboats were
watched; the railroad depots were searched; and, wherever a suspi-
cious box or bale was discovered, it was ordered back to the ware-
houses.
After a time the general government undertook to prevent any ship-
ments into Kentucky, save such as should be required by the normal
demands of her own population. A system of shipment-permits was
established under the supervision of the collector of the port, and pass-
engers on the ferry-boats into Covington were even searched to see if
they were carrying over pistols or other articles contraband of war; but,
in spite of all efforts, Kentucky long continued to be the convenient
source and medium for supplies to the Southwestern Seceded States.
The day after the Cincinnati meeting denouncing his course relative
to Kentucky, Governor Dennison, stimulated perhaps by this censure,
but in accordance with a policy already formed, issued orders to the
presidents of all railroads in Ohio to have everything passing over their
roads in the direction of Virginia or any other seceded State, whether
as ordinary freight or express matter, examined, and if contraband of
war, immediately stopped and reported to him. The order may not
have had legal sanction ; but in the excited state of the public mind it
was accepted by all concerned as ample authority. The next day
similar instructions were sent to all. express companies.
On the other hand, Cincinnati began active efforts to
supply the northern armies — not only with competent
officers and brave men, but with clothing, food and
munitions of war. Some of the earliest contracts for
uniforms for the State regiments were taken in the city,
and Miles Greenwood very soon began at his foundries
the manufacture of field-guns for twelve batteries ordered
by the State, as also the rifling of old muskets, convert-
ing them into what became known as "the Greenwood
rifle," and was in time highly esteemed by the troops.
At once upon the sounding of the tocsin at Sumter,
Cincinnati began her generous offers to and sacrifices for
the Union. The Guthrie Grays and the Rover Guards
were among the first militia companies of the State
whose services were tendered to the governor. The lat-
ter, with the Zouave Guards and the Lafayette Guards,
both also of Cincinnati, became, respectively, companies
A, D and E, in the original organization of the Second
Ohio infantry ; and the former was made the nucleus of
the Sixth regiment of volunteer infantry. Colonel Lewis
Wilson, who had promptly resigned the high office of
chief of police in Cincinnati, to offer his services to the
government, was made commandant of the Second.
General Thomas L. Young, since governor of the State
and member of congress, foreseeing the trouble that was
coming, offered his aid to General Scott in organizing the
volunteer forces, twenty-five days before the rebels fired
on Sumter; and is thus claimed to have been the first
volunteer from Hamilton county, and very likely from the
State, unless the lamented President Andrews, of Kenyon
college, is to be excepted. Other early offers from pat-
riotic men in various public and private stations,
were made by thousands; and the entire demand made
by the Federal government upon the State of Ohio, in
the first call for troops (two regiments), could have been
answered in this city alone, as it was by the State at
large, within twenty-four hours. Enlistments in Cincin-
nati were hearty and general from all classes. The con-
tingent of many thousands furnished to the Federal
ioS
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
armies by Hamilton county was almost wholly Cincin-
nati's contingent. The earlier Kentucky regiments, fur-
nished in pursuance of Governor Dennison's noble utter-
ance after the insolent and treasonable refusal of Governor
Magoffin, "If Kentucky will not fill her quota, Ohio will
fill it for her," were largely filled by Cincinnati men.
One of the local regiments, the Thirty-ninth, furnished
the largest number of re-enlisted "veterans," five hundred
and thirty-four, of any Ohio regiment or other command
of any arm of the service. The first Major General of
the Ohio militia (McClellan), and one (Joshua H. Bates)
of the three brigadiers appointed by the governor at
once after the outbreak of the rebellion, were of the
Queen City. A remarkable number of the most distin-
guished of the Union generals were from Cincinnati —
Major Generals McClellan, Rosecrans, Mitchel and
Godfrey Weitzel;* Brevet Major Generals R. B. Hayes,
August Willich, Henry B. Banning, Manning F. Force
and Kenner Garrard; Brigadier Generals Robert L. Mc-
Cook, William H. Lytle,* A. Sanders Piatt,* Eliakim P.
Scammon, Nathaniel McLean, Melancthon S. Wade and
John P. Slough ; and Brevet Brigadier Generals Andrew
Hickenlooper, Benjamin C. Ludlow, Israel Garrard,*
William H. Baldwin, Henry V. N. Boynton, Charles E.
Brown,* Henry L. Burnet, Henry M. Cist,* Stephen J.
McGroarty, Granville Moody, August Moor, Reuben D.
Mussey, George W. Neff, Edward F. Noyes, Augustus C.
Parry, Durbin Ward and Thomas L. Young. A number
of the more eminent commanders of Ohio regiments, of
the lamented dead of the war, were also Cincinnatians —
as the young Colonel Minor Milliken, Colonels John F.
Patrick, Frederick C. Jones, William G. Jones and John T.
Toland. The first governor of Ohio during the rebellion,
William Dennison, is a native of Cincinnati ; and another
of the war governors, the redoubtable John Brough, was
for a time a lawyer and editor in the citv. Hon. Salmon
P. Chase, the great secretary of the treasury, whose ad-
ministration of the National finances during the long
struggle was so efficient that a leader of the rebellion said
at its close: "It was not your generals that defeated us;
it was your treasury" — was long a resident of Cincinnati,
and went to Washington from this city. A host of other
Cincinnatians, in various civil and military capacities,
served with usefulness and honor in the terrible crisis.
Especially useful to the government were the medical
men of Cincinnati. The first surgeon-general of the
State appointed by Governor Dennison at the outbreak
of the war, on the recommendation of McClellan, was
Dr. George H. Shumard, of the city, though long absent
from it, engaged in^ geological surveys and otherwise.
One of the State board of examiners, before whom all
candidates for appointment as surgeon or assistant surgeon
in Ohio commands were compelled to pass, was Dr. John
A. Murphy, of Cincinnati. More than half the entire
number of "United States Volunteer Surgeons," who
entered the service independently of special commands,
and whose addresses are given in "Ohio in the War,"
were Cincinnati men. One of these, Dr. William H.
Mussey, ultimately became one of the board of medical
* Natives of Cincinnati.
inspectors — small in number, but important and influ-
ential in their duties — who stood next to the surgeon-
general and his assistant as the ranking medical officers
of the army. Another, Dr. William Clendenin, became
assistant medical director of the army of the Cumber-
land. Another, Dr. Robert Fletcher, won much distinc-
tion as medical purveyor at Nashville for the great armies
operating in Tennessee and Georgia. Some of the regi-
mental surgeons became scarcely less distinguished; as
Dr. James, of the Fourth Ohio cavalry, who rose to be
the chief medical officer of the entire cavalry of the
army.
Within a time astonishingly short, after the outbreak
of the war, Camp Harrison was established, upon the
trotting park in the outskirts of Cumminsville, and troops
began pouring in thither. General William H. Lytle, by
whom it was selected, was appointed commander of the
Camp. The Guthrie Grey regiment, ready by the after-
noon of April 20th, and several other companies, were the
first to rendezvous there. Colonel Geffroy, of the Gib-
son House, set to work in town among the ladies of the
East End, and soon enlisted a large number of them in
the patriotic work of collecting materials and making up
underwear for the soldiers in the parlors of his hotel,
while the ladies of the West End were soon engaged in
similar work at a private residence. The Cincinnati Aid
association was organized by the citizens at large, to help
support the families of soldiers in the field; and the
Daughters of Temperance also organized an aid society
of their own.
A general meeting of Irish citizens was held at Mozart's
hall April 20th, at which many volunteeted, and a reso-
lution was passed to raise an Irish regiment, several
wealthy men present offering to give a thousand dollars
each for the purpose. It was raised, and became the
Tenth Ohio infantry. Ex-Mayor R. M. Moore raised
one company of it. McCook's German regiment was
raised with great promptitude, elected its field officers on
the night of the twenty-third, and went to camp the next
day, after a triumphal march through the city. The Sto-
rer Rifles were the first company to get arms. It was
splendidly equipped with Sharp's rifles, the private prop-
erty of the men. Many home companies were recruited
for drill and organization, one or two in every ward; and
by the nineteenth of April it was estimated that at least
ten thousand were preparing for military service. On
that day the news of the attack at Baltimore on Feder-
al troops was received, and the Germans recruiting for
Cook's regiment paraded the streets amid great enthusi-
asm. Len Harris, afterwards a colonel and mayor of
the city, recruited ninety men the first day after the war
opened. The printers of the city raised a company
among themselves. The Lafayette Guards, ordered to
Columbus, took upon the cars two hundred and seven
men, although eighty-seven men was then the maximum
of a company. The loyal enthusiasm for enlistment and
preparation for war was unbounded. The city authori-
ties voted a quarter of a million dollars from the sinking
fund for the purposes of the opening conflict, and the
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
109
people saw to it that the American flag was hung from
every flagstaff and window where it ought to be floating,
at one time compelling the officer in charge at the Cus-
tom house to fling it to the breeze, and several times
obliging masters of steamers to raise aloft the banner of
of beauty and of glory. After one or two vessels
from above had gone by without landing, evidently with
arms and munitions of war for the South, a committe of
safety was appointed to see that no more such articles
passed the city. Messrs. Rufus King, Miles Greenwood,
William Cameron, Joseph Torrence, J. C. Butler, and
Henry Handy composed the committee. Their efforts
were cordially, though always judiciously, seconded by
an excited populace, which was sometimes on the point
of mobbing suspected steamers or recusant captains. An-
other committee — Colonel A. E. Jones, C. F. Wilstach,
and Frederick Meyer — was also appointed to act in con-
junction with the city authorities in stopping the ship-
ment of supplies to the rebels; and still another commit-
tee of safety, consisting of one person from each ward
and neighboring township, to act as occasion might de-
mand in concert with the military and municipal author-
ities. Joint meetings of Cincinnati, Newport, and
Covington patriots were held — the first of them April
18th; and no pains or cost was spared to get ready for
the coming conflict.
The sanitary condition of the troops sent to the field,
and compelled to live under conditions widely different
from those to which they had been accustomed, early- at-
tracted the attention of philanthropic and patriotic Cin-
cinnatians, and called for organized effort. The "Cincin-
nati Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission,''
one of the most efficient societies of the kind formed in
the north, was the first of their deliberations. Its story
has been simply and pleasantly told in brief in a volume
narrating the "History of the Great Western Sanitary
Fair," published in Cincinnati after the culmination of
that success.
Soon after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the President and the Sec-
retary of War were induced by certain gentlemen to issue an order au-
thorizing them and their associates to co-operate with the Government
in the relief of sick and wounded soldiers, and to prosecute such inqui-
ries of a sanitary character as might further the same end. Under this
authority these parties organized the United States Sanitary Commis-
sion, and have since elected to that body a few others not originally act-
ing with them. They also construed their powers as enabling them to
create a class of associate members, several hundred in number, resid-
ing respectively in almost every loyal State and territory. The duties
of these associates, and the extent to which they share the power com-
mitted to the original members have never been precisely defined.
Appointments were made as early as May, 1861, of several such as-
sociate members, resident in Cincinnati; but no organization of a branch
commission was effected until the succeeding fall.
Through the instrumentality of Dr. W. H. Mussey, the use of the
United States marine hospital, an unfurnished building originally in-
tended for western boatmen, was procured from Secretary Chase, a '
board of ladies and gentlemen organized for its management, and the
house furnished by the donations of citizens, and opened for the recep-
tion of sick and wounded soldiers in May, 1861. This institution was
carried on without cost to the Government, all necessary services of
surgeons and nurses, and all supplies, having been supplied gratuitously
until August, 1861, when the success of the enterprise induced the Gov-
ernment to adopt it, and it was taken charge of by the Medical Director
of the Department.*
* Mrs. Cadwell became its matron. Her name is a sacred one with
thousands of soldiers throughout the west.
The western secretary of the Sanitary Commission having given no-
tice to the associate members resident in Cincinnati of their appoint-
ments, the Cincinnati branch was formally organized, at a meeting at
the residence of Dr. W. H. Mussey, November 27, 1861. Robert W.
Burnet was elected president, George Hoadly, vice-president, Charles
R. Fosdick, corresponding secretary, and Henry Pierce, treasurer.
The body thus created was left almost wholly without instruction or
specification of powers. It had no other charge than to do the best it
could with what it could get. It was permitted to work out its own
fate by the light of the patriotism and intelligence of its members. If
any authority was claimed over it, or power to direct or limit its action,
it was not known to the members for nearly two years from the date of
its organization.
The steps actually taken, however, were from time to time communi-
cated to the United States Sanitary Commission at Washington, and by
them approved. Delegates more than once attended the sessions of
that body, and were allowed to participate in its action. The Branch
were requested to print, as one of the series (No. 44) of the publications
of the Commission, their report of their doings to date of March 1,
1862 ; and two thousand five hundred copies of the edition were sent to
Washington for distribution from that point.
Previous to the organization of this Branch, an address had been is-
sued by the United States Sanitary Commission to the loyal women of
America, in which the name of Dr. Mussey was mentioned as a proper
party to whom supplies might be sent. A small stock had been received
by him, which was transferred to the Branch, and circulars were at once
prepared and issued appealing to the means of such useful action as
might seem open. A Central Ladies' Aid Society in Cincinnati, for
Cincinnati and vicinity, was organized,* and the cS-operation of more
than forty societies of ladies in Hamilton county thus secured. This
society, it is proper to add, continued its beneficial connection with the
Branch in vigorous activity, furnishing large quantities of supplies of
every description, for nearly two years, and until the dispiriting effect
of the change hereafter to be noticed, in the relations of the branch to
the work of distribution, paralyzed its efforts, and resulted finally in a
practical transfer of the labors of the ladies to other fields of no less
patriotic service.
The camps and hospitals near Cincinnati were subjected to inspec-
tion, and all necessary relief was furnished. Concert of action was es-
tablished with the Volunteer Aid Committee, appointed at a public
meeting of citizens in October, 1861, of whom Messrs. C. F. Wilstach,
E. C. Baldwin, and M. E, Reeves, were elected members of the Branch.
Their rooms, kindly furnished free of expense by the School Board, be-
came its office and depot ; and finally, in the spring of 1862, a complete
transfer was made of all the stock in the hands of that committee to the
Cincinnati Branch, and the former body was merged in this.
Under the stimulus of constant appeals to the public, and by wise use
of the means received, the confidence of the community having been
gained, large quantities of hospital and camp supplies, and some money,
were received, and the members entered with zeal upon the duty of dis-
tribution. The force which the United States Sanitary Commission
then had in the West, consisted of the Western Secretary and a few in-
spectors, who were engaged in travelling from camp to camp, without
any fixed quarters. The body was not prepared, and did not profess to
to undertake this duty.
A serious question soon presented itself to the mind of every active
member of the Branch whether to prosecute the work of distribution
mainly through paid agents, or by means of voluntary service. At
times there had been differences of opinion upon the subject, and some
of the members have had occasion, with enlarged experience, to revise
their views. The result of this experience is to confirm the judgment
that the use of paid agents by such an organization, in such crises, is,
except to a limited extent, inexpedient. It has been clearly proved that
voluntary service can be had to a sufficient extent; and such service
connects the army and the people by. a constantly renewing chain of
gratuitous, valuable, and tender labors, which many who cannot serve
in the field esteem it a privilege to be permitted to perform in the sick
room and the hospital.
The members of this Branch felt at liberty to pledge publicly, in
their appeals for contributions, that the work of distribution should be
done under their personal supervision, subject of course to the control
of the proper medical officers of the army; and, until late in the au-
tumn of 1862, they faithfully kept this pledge, and were able to effect,
as they all believed, a maximum of benefit with a minimum of com-
plaint. Fault-finding never ceases while the seasons change; but the
*Of which Mrs. George Carlisle was president, and Mrs. Judge
Hoadly secretary. All its members were devoted workers.
no
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
finding of fault with the gratuitous services of men well known in a
community have no power to injure.
While their labors were prosecuted under this plan, nearly every
member of the branch was brought into personal contact with the work
of distribution. They were present on the battle-field of Shiloh. They
were first at Perryville and Fort Donelson, at which place they inaug-
urated the system of hospital steamers. They called to their aid suc-
cessfully the services of the most eminent surgeons and physicians, and
the first citizens of Cincinnati. They gained the confidence of the
legislature of Ohio, which made them an appropriation of three thou-
sand dollars; and of the city council of Cincinnati, who paid them in
like manner the sum of two thousand dollars; and of the secretary of
war and the quartermaster general, who placed at their control, at
Government expense, a steamer, which for months navigated the
western waters in the transportation of supplies and the sick and
wounded. They fitted out, in whole or in part, thirty-two such steam-
ers, some running under their own management, others under that of
the governor of Ohio, the mayor of Cincinnati, the United States
sanitary commission and the war department.
The relief furnished at Fort Donelson by this Branch constituted a
marked and at the same time a novel instance of their mode of manage-
ment, which may properly receive more specific mention here, as it
elicited high praise from the Western Secretary, and the compliment of
a vote of encouragement from the United States Sanitary Commission.
In this case a handsome sum was at once raised by subscription among
the citizens, and the steamer Allen Collier was chartered, loaded with
hospital supplies and medicines, placed under the charge of five mem-
bers of the Branch, with ten volunteer surgeons and thirty-six nurses,
and- dispatched to the Cumberland River. At Louisville the Western
Sanitary accepted an invitation to join the party. It was also found
practicable to accommodate on board one delegate from the Columbus
and another from the Indianapolis Branch Commission, with a farther
stock of supplies from the latter. The steamer reached Donelson in ad-
vance of any uther relief agency. Great destitution was found to exist —
on the field no chloroform at all, and but little morphia, and on the
floating hospital Fanny Bullitt, occupied by three hundred wounded,
only two ounces of cerate, no meat for soup, no wood for cooking, and
the only bread hard bread — not a spoon or a candlestick. Sufferings
corresponded. Happily the Collier bore an ample stock, and, with
other parties on a like errand, who soon arrived, the surgeons' task was
speedily made lighter, and his patients gained in comfort. The Collier
returned after a short delay, bringing a load of wounded to occupy hos-
pitals at Cincinnati, which this Branch had meanwhile, under the au-
thority of General Halleck and with the aid of that efficient and noble
officer, Dr. John Moore, then Post Surgeon at Cincinnati, procured
and furnished.
This was but the beginning of very arduous and extensive services,
personally and gratuitously rendered by members of this Branch. They
traveled thousands of miles on hospital steamers, on their errands of
mercy, and spent weeks and months in laborious service on battle-fields
and in camps and hospitals. They aided the Government in the estab-
lishment of eight hospitals in Cincinnati and Covington, and suggested
and assisted the work of preparing Camp Dennison, seventeen miles
distant, as a general hospital for the reception of thousands of patients.
They bought furniture, became responsible for rent and the pay of
nurses, provided material for the supply-table, hired physicians, and in
numberless ways secured that full and careful attention to the care and
comfort of the soldiers which, from inexperience, want of means, or the
fear of responsibility, would otherwise, during the first and second years
of the war, have been wanting.
During the period to which allusion has been made, the United
States Sanitary Commission had few resources, and those mostly em-
ployed in proper service at the East, where the members principally re-
side. This Branch was called on to aid that body, and, to the extent
of its means, responded. At one time (early in 1862) it was supposed
impossible to sustain that organization, except by a monthly contribu-
tion from each of the several branches, continued for six months; and
this Branch was assessed to pay to that end the sum of two hundred
and fifty dollars per month for the time specified, which call was met
by an advance of the entire sum required, viz. : two thousand three
hundred and seventy-five dollars. This sum, small as it now seems in
comparison with the enormous contributions of a later date, was then
considered no mean subsidy by either of the parties to it.
In May, 1862, the Soldiers' Home of the Branch was established, an
institution which, since its opening, has entertained with a degree of
comfort scarcely surpassed by the best hotels in the city, over eighty
thousand soldiers, furnishing them threehundred and seventy-two thou-
sand meals. It has recently been furnished with one hundred new iron
bedsteads, at a cost of five hundred dollars. The establishment and
maintenance of the home the members of the Cincinnati branch look
upon as one of their most valuable works, second in importance only to
the relief furnished by the "sanitary steamers" dispatched promptly to
the battle-fields, with surgeons, nurses and stores, and with beds to
bring away the wounded and the sick; and they may, perhaps, be per-
mitted with some pride to point to these two important systems 6T relief
inaugurated by them. The necessity for the last mentioned method of
relief has nearly passed away ; we hope it may soon pass away entirely,
never to return. The home long stood, under the efficient superintend-
ence of G. W. D. Andrews, offering food and rest to the hungry and
wayworn soldier, and reminding us of the kind hearts and loyal hands
whose patriotic contributions and patient toil, supplementing the aid
furnished by the Government through the quartermaster and commis-
sary departments of the army, enabled them to establish it. To this
aid of a generous and benign government, dispensed with kindness and
alacrity by the officers who have been at the heads of these departments
in this city, this institution is indebted, in great measure, for its exist-
ence and usefulness.
The importance of perpetuating the names of all soldiers whose lives
had been or might be sacrificed in the defense of our Government, being
an anxious concern of many of the members of our commission, and re-
garded by them as of so much importance, they early resolved that, so
far as they could control the matter, not only should this be done, but
that their last resting place should -be in a beautiful city of the dead,
Spring Grove cemetery. An early interview was had with the trustees,
who promptly responded to the wishes of the commission, and gratuit-
ously donated for that purpose a conspicuous lot, near the charming
lake, of a circular shape, and in size sufficient to contain three hundred
bodies. In addition thereto, this generous association have interred,
free of expense for interment, all the soldiers buried there. This lot
having become occupied, the commission arranged for another of
similar size and shape nearly, for the sum of one thousand five hundred
dollars. The subject of the payment of the same having been pre-
sented to the legislature of Ohio, the members unanimously agreed
that, as a large proportion of those who were to occupy this ground as
their last home were the sons of Ohio, it was the proper duty of the
State to contribute thereto. In accordance therewith, an appropriation
of three thousand dollars was made for the purpose, subject to the ap-
proval of His Excellency, Governor Tod. A third circle, of the same
size and shape, ' adjacent to the others, was therefore secured at the
same price. The propriety of this expenditure was approved of by the
governor, after careful examination of the ground and its value. Two
of these lots have been filled, and the third is in readiness for occupancy,
should it become necessary. A record is carefully made on the books
of the cemetery of the name, age, company and regiment, of each sol-
dier interred there, that relatives, friends and strangers may know, in all
time to come, that we for whom their lives were given were not un-
mindful of the sacrifice they had made, and that we properly appreciate
the obligations we are under to them, for their efforts in aiding to se-
cure to us and future generations the blessings of a redeemed and re-
generated country.
In view of the work of this branch from the commencement, we can
not but express our heartfelt gratitude to that kind Providence which
has so signally blessed its efforts, and made the commission instru-
mental in the distribution of the large amount of donations which have
been poured into their hands by full and free hearts for the benefit of
sufferers who are bravely defending our country and our homes.
It will be seen that one and a half per cent, of the cash receipts from
the commencement will cover all expenses for clerk-hire, labor, freight,
drayage, and other incidental matters; and this comparatively small
expense is, in great measure, owing to the extreme liberality — which
should here be gratefully acknowledged — of the free use of the tele-
graph wires, and the free carriage of hundreds of tons of stores by the
several express companies, railroads and steamboats.
With all this liberality, our supplies would long since have been ex-
hausted by the constantly increasing requirements of our soldiers, had
not the sagacity and enterprise of a number of energetic and patriotic
gentlemen suggested the idea of and inaugurated the great western
sanitary fair of this city, the wonderful result of which realized to the
commission over a quarter of a million of dollars.
A very large amount of money and sanitary stores was handled by
this branch of the commission. From the date of its organization to
August 11, 1864— long before its final work was done— a total of three
hundred and thirteen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-six dollars
and thirty cents had come into its treasury, of which there was still on
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
in
hand, in government securities and cash in the bank, the handsome
remainder of one hundred and twenty-two thousand, nine hundred and
five dollars and fifteen cents. Nearly three hundred different articles
had been purchased or received as donations — some of them in great
quantity — and used in the soldiers' home or local hospitals, or for-
warded to the troops. Among these "sanitary stores'' were checker-
boards, solitaire boards, puzzles, "pretzels," and some other things, of
which people would hardly think in this connection, but which were
undoubtedly found useful in aiding the prevention or cure of disease.
The total value of the sanitary supplies distributed by the branch to the
close of 1863 — about the middle of the war — was not far from a mil-
lion of dollais.
The Great Western Sanitary Fair, to which reference is
made in the foregoing sketch, had its origin in an impulse
received from the success of a similar fair held in Chica-
go in October, 1863. As a result of consultations be-
tween gentlemen of the Sanitary Commission and the
National Union association, of some agitation through
the newspapers, and several meetings, a very extensive
and efficient scheme for such an exposition was set on
foot. Mr. Reid says:
Presently the whole city was alive with the enthusiasm of a common
generous effort. Those who best know the usually staid and undemon-
strative Queen City unite in the testimony that she was never before so
stirred through all the strata of her society, never before so warm and
glowing, for any cause or on any occasion. Churches, citizens' associa-
tions, business men, mechanics, took hold of the work. Committees
were appointed, embracing the leading men and the best workers in
every walk of life throughout the city; meetings of ladies weie held;
circulars were distributed ; public appeals filled the newspapers. "
General Rosecrans, who had been temporarily retired
from service in the field, but had lost none of his popu-
larity at home, was secured as president of the fair; and
his appointment and active efforts contributed largely to
its success. The fair was opened by an address from
him on the morning of December 21st, and continued
through the holidays. So extensive were the prepara-
tions that five different halls and buildings — two of them
expressly erected for the purpose, in the Fifth and Sixth
street market spaces — were needed. Mozart and Green-
wood halls, and the Palace Garden, were the permanent
buildings occupied. It was a splendid exhibit and bazaar,
and led, with the public readings, lectures, and other en-
tertainments gratuitously at the Mozart hall in aid of the
movement, to "such a lavish expenditure of money as
the city had never before dreamed of." The cash re-
ceipts of the enterprise were about two hundred and
sixty thousand dollars, of which only eight and one-fifth
per cent, was absorbed in expenses, and the magnificent
sum of two hundred and thirty-five thousand four hun-
dred and six dollars and sixty-two cents was poured into
the treasury of the Branch. This was a larger sum, in
proportion to population, than was realized from any
other fair of the kind, except in Pittsburgh and St. Louis,
which came later and had superior advantages.
Mr. Reid says of the operations of this Branch :
The largest and most noted organization in Ohio for the relief of sol-
diers was, of course, the "Cincinnati Branch of the United States San-
itary Commission." This body, throughout its history, pursued a policy
little calculated to advance its own fame — admirably adapted to ad-
vance the interests of the soldiers for whom it labored. It had but one
salaried officer, and it gave him but a meagre support for the devotion
of his whole time. It spent no large funds in preserving statistics and
multiplying reports of its good works. It entered into no elaborate
scientific investigations concerning the best sanitary conditions for large
armies. It left no bulky volumes of tracts, discussions, statistics, eulo-
gies, and defences — indeed, it scarcely left a report that might satisfac-
torily exhibit the barest outline of its work. But it collected and used
great sums of money and supplies for the soldiers. First of any con-
siderable bodies in the United States, it sent relief to battle-fields on a
scale commensurate with the wants of the wounded. It was the first
to equip hospital boats, and it led in the faithful, patient work among
the armies, particularly in the west, throughout the war. Its guardian-
ship of the funds committed to its care was held a sacred trust for the
relief of needy soldiers. The incidental expenses were kept down to
the lowest possible figure, and were all defrayed out of the interest of
moneys in its hands before they were needed in the field — so that every
dollar that was committed to it went, at some time or other, directly to
a soldier in some needed form. In short, it was business skill and
Christian integrity in charge of the people's contributions for their men
in the ranks. . . . The Cincinnati Branch of the Sanitary
Commission continued to devote its moneys sacredly to the precise pur-
pose for which they were contributed. At the close of the war many
thousand dollars were in the treasury. These it kept invested in United
States bonds, using the interest and drawing on the principal from time
to time, as it was needed for the relief of destitute soldiers, and specially
for their transportation to their homes, in cases where other provision
was not made for them. Three years after the close of the war, it still
had a remnant of the sacred sum, and was still charging itself as care-
fully as ever with its disbursement.
Another most efficient organization, for which Cincin-
nati became distinguished during the war, was the local
branch of the United States Christian commission. The
religious elements in the city had been stirred profoundly,
and excited to the most ardent patriotism, by the out-
break of the war. Some of the earliest volunteers for
military service had been of the city clergy, of whom at
least one, the Rev. Granville Moody, achieved great dis-
tinction and a brigadier's commission, and most of the
Cincinnati pulpits gave forth no uncertain sound in aid
of the Union cause. On the third of June, in the first
year of the war, the association of Evangelical ministers
in the city adopted the following energetic and whole-
hearted deliverance:
Deeply grateful to Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, for his past
mercies to this nation, and particularly noting at this time His gracious
goodness in leading our fathers to establish and preserve for us a Con-
stitutional Government unequalled among the Governments of the
earth in guarding the rights and promoting the entire welfare of a great
people — we, the Evangelical ministry of Cincinnati, have been led by a
constrained sense of accountability to Him, the author of all our good,
and by unfeigned love for our country, to adopt the following state-
ment:
We are compelled to regard the Rebellion which now afflicts our land
and jeopardizes some of the most precious hopes of mankind, as the
result of a long-contemplated and widespread conspiracy against the
principles of liberty, justice, mercy, and righteousness proclaimed in
the word of God, sustained by our constitutional Government, and
lying at the foundation of all public and private welfare. In the pres-
ent conflict, therefore, our Government stands before us as representing
the cause of God and man against a rebellion threatening the nation
with ruin, in order to perpetuate and speed a system of unrighteous op-
pression. In this emergency, as ministers of God, we cannot hesitate
to support, by every legitimate method, the Government in maintain-
ing its authority unimpaired throughout the whole country and over
this whole people.
Among other demonstrations of loyalty, Archbishop
Purcell had the flag of the Union raised over St. Peter's
cathedral in Cincinnati and the churches elsewhere in
his diocese, and throughout the war cast his immense in-
fluence among his people steadily for the Federal cause.
After a time the Cincinnati branch of the United States
Christian commission was organized, and did a noble
work. It received and disbursed the sum (including
eight thousand one hundred and forty-four dollars from
the Cleveland branch) of one hundred and seventeen
112
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
thousand and thirty-three dollars, besides stores to the
value of two hundred and eighty-nine thousand six hun-
dred and two dollars, and publications worth three thou-
sand and twenty-four dollars. The final statement of the
operations of the branch says: "From the opening of
the office at No. 57 Vine street, until it closed, an unin-
terrupted stream of money and stores poured in upon us
from the patriotic men and women of the west, and espe-
cially of the State of Ohio. Soldiers' aid societies, and
ladies' Christian commissions by scores and hundreds,
kept us supplied with the means to minister largely to
the comfort and temporal wants of our noble boys in
blue." Mr. A. E. Chamberlain, of the firm of A. E.
Chamberlain & Co., served continuously and faithfully
as president of the branch, and gave office and store room
without charge. Mr. H. Thane Miller was vice-presi-
dent; Rev. J. F, Marlay, secretary; Rev. B. W. Chidlaw,
general agent; and the committee included some of the
best-known Christian workers and residents of the city.
The chief events of the war, as most closely related" to
Cincinnati — the siege of the city and the Morgan raid-
are narrated in other chapters. We give here only that
portion of the orders issued by General Cox, under di-
rection of General Burnside, during the raid of Morgan,
which more particularly concerned the city:
Headquarters, District of Ohio, V
Cincinnati, July 13, 1863. .)
I. For the more perfect organization of militia of the city of Cin-
cinnati, the city is divided into four districts, as follows : First district,
consisting of the First, Third, Fourth, and Seventeenth- wards, under
command of Brigadier General S. D. Sturgis ; headquarters, Broadway
hotel. Second district, consisting of Second, Fifth, Sixth, and Four-
teenth wards, under command of Major Malcolm McDowell ; head^
quarters, Burnet house. Third district, consisting of Seventh, Ninth,
Tenth, and Eleventh wards, under command of Brigadier General Jacob
Ammen ; headquarters, orphan asylum. Fourth district, consisting- of
the Eighth, Twelfth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth wards, under command
of Colonel Granville Moody ; headquarters, Finley Methodist Episcopal
chapel, on Clinton, near Cutter street.
II. The independent volunteer companies will report to Colonel
Stanley Matthews ; headquarters at Walnut street house.
By command of Brigadier General J. D. Cox.
G. M. Bascom,
Assistant Adjutant General.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI.
In the early days of 1862, a new name was growing at
once into popular favor and popular fear among the pru-
dent rebels of the Kentucky border. It was first heard
of in the achievement of carrying off the artillery be-
longing to the Lexington company of the Kentucky
State guard into the confederate service. Gradually it
came to be coupled with daring scouts by little squads of
the rebel cavalry, within our contemplative picket -lines
* From Reid's " Ohio in the War," volume I, chapter 8, by permis-
sion, with unimportant omissions and slight changes.
along Green river; with sudden dashes, like the burning
of the Bacon creek bridge, which the lack of enterprise,
or even of ordinary vigilance, on the part of some of our
commanders, permitted; with unexpected swoops upon
isolated supply-trains or droves of army cattle; with
saucy messages about an intention to burn the Yankees
of Woodsonville the next week, and the like. Then
came dashes within our lines about Nashville, night at-
tacks, audacious captures of whole squads of guards
within sight of the camps and within a half a mile of di-
vision headquarters; the seizure of Gallatin; adroit ex-
peditions upon telegraph operators, which secured what-
ever news about the National armies was passing over
the wires. Then, after Mitchel had swept down into
northern Alabama, followed incursions upon his rear,
cotton-burning exploits under the very noses of his
guards, open pillage of citizens who had been encour-
aged by the advance of the National armies to express
their loyalty. These acts covered a wide range of coun-
try, and followed each' other in quick succession ; but
they were all traced to John Morgan's Kentucky cavalry,
and such were their frequency and daring that, by mid-
summer of 1862, Morgan and his men occupied almost
as much of the popular attention in Kentucky and along
the borders as Beauregard or Lee.
The leader of this band was a native of Huntsville,
Alabama, but from early boyhood a resident of Kentucky.
He had grown up to the free and easy life of a slave-
holding farmer's son, in the heart of the Blue Grass coun-
try near Lexington ; had become a volunteer for the Mex-
ican war at the age of nineteen, and had risen to a first
lieutenantcy; had passed through his share of encoun-
ters and "affairs of honor" about Lexington — not with-
out wounds — and had finally married and settled down
as a manufacturer and speculator. He had lived freely,
gambled freely, shared in all the dissipations of the time
and place, and still had retained the early vigor of a pow-
erful constitution and a strong hold upon the confidence
of the hot-blooded young men of Lexington. These
followed l.im to the war; they were horsemen by instinct,
accustomed to a dare-devil life, capable of doing their
own thinking in emergencies, without waiting for orders,
and in all respects the best material for an independent
-band' of partisan rangers the country has produced.
They were allied by family connections with many of the
people of the Blue Grass region, and it could but result
that, when they appeared in Kentucky — whatever army
might be near — they found themselves among friends.
The people of Ohio had hardly recovered from the
spasmodic efforts to raise regiments in a day for the sec-
ond defence of the capital, into which they had been
thrown by the call of the Government, in its alarm at
Stonewall Jackson's rush through the valley. They were
now rather languidly turning to the effort of filling out
the new and unexpected call for seventy-four thousand
three-years' men. Few had as yet been raised. Here
and there through the State were the nuclei of form-
ing regiments, and there were a few arms; but there was
no adequate protection for the border, and none dreamed
that any was necessary. Beauregard had evacuated Cor-
s-Jl^bsort.J'ud.^^''-
'%
■■■■■ • .,. ■
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
"3
inth; Memphis had fallen; Buell was moving eastward
toward Chattanooga; the troops lately commanded by
Mitchel held Tennessee and northern Alabama ; Kentucky
was mainly in the hands of her home guards, and, under
the provisions of a State military board, was raising vol-
unteers for the National army.-
Suddenly, while the newspapers were trying to explain
McClellan's change of base and clamoring against BuelPs
slow advance on Chattanooga, without a word of warning
or explanation, came the startling news that John Mor-
gan was in Kentucky ! The dispatches of Friday after-
noon, the eleventh of July, announced that he had fallen
upon the little post of Tompkinsville and killed or cap-
tured the entire garrison. By evening it was known that
the prisoners were paroled; that Morgan had advanced,
unopposed, to Glasgow; that he had issued a proclama-
tion calling upon the Kentuckians to rise; that the au-
thorities deemed it unsafe to attempt sending through
trains from Louisville to Nashville. By Saturday after-
noon he was reported marching on Lexington, and Gen-
eral Boyle, the commandant in Kentucky, was telegraph-
ing vigorously to Mayor Hatch at Cincinnati, for militia
to be sent in that direction.
A public meeting was at once called, and by nine
o'clock that evening a concourse of several thousand cit-
izens had gathered in the Fifth street market-space.
Meantime more and more urgency for aid had been ex-
pressed in successive dispatches from General Boyle. In
one he fixed Morgan's force at two thousand, eight hun-
dred ; in another he said that Morgan, with fifteen hun-
dred men, had burned Perryville, and was marching on
Danville; again, that the forces at his command were
needed to defend Louisville, and that Cincinnati must
defend Lexington ! Some of these dispatches were read
at the public meeting, and speeches were made by the
mayor, Judge Saffin, and others. Finally, a committee
was appointed, consisting of Mayor Hatch, Hon. George
E. Pugh, Joshua Bates, Thomas J. Gallagher, Miles
Greenwood, J. W. Hartwell, Peter Gibson, and J. B.
Stallo, to take such measures for organized effort as
might be possible or necessary. Before the committee
could organize came word that Governor Tod had or-
dered down such convalescent soldiers as could be gath-
ered at Camp Dennison and Camp Chase, and had sent
a thousand stand of arms. A little after midnight two
hundred men, belonging to the Fifty-second Ohio, ar-
rived.
On Sunday morning the city was thoroughly alarmed.
The streets were thronged at an early hour, and by nine
o'clock another large meeting had gathered in the Fifth-
street market-space. Speeches were made by ex-Senator
Pugh, Thomas J. Gallagher, and Benjamin Eggleston.
It was announced that a battalion made up of the police
force would be sent to Lexington in the evening. Ar-
rangements were made to organize volunteer companies.
Charles F. Wilstach and Eli C. Baldwin were authorized
to procure rations for volunteers. The city council met,
resolved that it would pay any bills incurred by the com-
mittees appointed at the public meeting, and appropri-
ated five thousand dollars for immediate wants. Eleven
hundred men — parts of the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth
Ohio, from Camp Chase — arrived in the afternoon and
went directly on to Lexington. The police force, under
Colonel Dudley, their chief, and an artillery company
with a single piece, under Captain William Glass, of the
city fire department, also took the special train for Lex-
ington in the evening. Similar scenes were witnessed
across the river at Covington during the same period.
While the troops were mustering, and the excited people
were volunteering, it was discovered that a brother of
John Morgan was a guest at one of the principal hotels.
He made no concealment of his relationship or of his
sympathy with the rebel cause, but produced a pass from
General Boyle. He was detained.
Monday brought no further news of Morgan, and the
alarm began to abate. Kentuckians expressed the belief
that he only meant to attract attention by feints on Lex-
ington and Frankfort, while he should make his way to
Bourbon county and destroy the long Townsend viaduct
near Paris, which might cripple the railroad ' for weeks.
The Secretary of War gave permission to use some can-
non which Miles Greenwood had been casting for the
Government, and Governor Morton, of Indiana, fur-
nished ammunition for them, the Columbus authorities
having declined to supply it, except on the requisition of
a United States officer commanding a post. The tone
of the press may be inferred from the advice of the
Gazette that "the bands sent out to pursue Morgan"
should take few prisoners — "the fewer the better."
"They are not worthy of being treated as soldiers,'' it
continued; "they are freebooters, thieves, and murder-
ers, and should be dealt with accordingly."
For a day or two there followed a state of uncertainty
as to Morgan's whereabouts or the real nature of the
danger. In answer to an application for artillery, the
Secretary of War telegraphed that Morgan was retreating.
Presently came dispatches from Kentucky that he was
still advancing. Governor Dennison visited Cincinnati
at the request of Governor Tod, consulted with the
"committee of public safety," and passed on to Frank-
fort to look after the squads of Ohio troops that had
been hastily forwarded to the points of danger.
The disorderly elements of the city took advantage of
the absence of so large a portion of the police force at
Lexington. Troubles broke out between the Irish and
negroes, in which the former were the aggressors; houses
were fired, and for a little time there were apprehensions
of a serious riot. Several hundred leading property
holders met in alarm at the Merchants' Exchange, and
took measures for organizing a force of one thousand
citizens for special service the ensuing night. For a day
or two the excitement was kept up, but there were few
additional outbreaks.
While Cincinnati was thus in confusion, and troops
were hurrying to the defense of the threatened points,
John Morgan was losing no time in idle debates. He
had left Knoxville, East Tennessee, on the morning of
the fourth of July; on the morning of the ninth he had
fallen upon the garrison at Tompkinsville; before one
o'clock the next morning he had possession of Glasgow;
«
ii4
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
by the eleventh he had possession of Lebanon. On the
Sunday (thirteenth) on which Cincinnati had been so
thoroughly aroused, he entered Harrodsburgh. Then,
feigning on Frankfort, he made haste toward Lexington,
striving to delay reinforcements by sending out parties to
burn bridges, and hoping to find the town an easy cap-
ture. Monday morning he was within fifteen miles of
Frankfort; before nightfall he was at Versailles, having
marched between three and four hundred miles in eight
days.
Moving thence to Midway, between Frankfort and
Lexington, he surprised the telegraph operator, secured
his office in good order, took off the dispatches that
were flying back and forth; possessed himself of the
plans and preparations of the Union officers at Frankfort,
Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati; and audaciously
sent dispatches in the name of the Midway operator, as-
suring the Lexington authorities that Morgan was then
driving in the pickets at Frankfort. Then he hastened
to Georgetown, twelve miles from Lexington, eighteen
from Frankfort, and within easy striking distance of any
point in the Blue Grass region. Here, with the union
commanders completely mystified as to his whereabouts
and purposes, he coolly halted for a couple of days and
rested his horses. Then, giving up all thought of at-
tacking Lexington, as he found how strongly it was garri-
soned, he decided — as Colonel Duke, his second in com-
mand, naively tells us in his History of Morgan's Cav-
alry— "to make a dash at Cynthiana, on the Kentucky
Central railroad, hoping to induce the impression that
he was aiming at Cincinnati, and at the same time thor-
oughly bewilder the officers in command at Lexington
regarding his real intentions." Thither, therefore, he
went; and to some purpose. The town was garrisoned
by a few hundred Kentucky cavalry and some home
guards, with Captain Glass' firemen-artillery company
from Cincinnati, in all perhaps five hundred men. These
were routed after some sharp fighting at the bridge and
in the streets; the gun was captured, and four hundred
and twenty prisoners were taken, besides abundance of
stores-, arms, and two or three hundred horses. At one
o'clock he was off for Paris, which sent out a deputation
of citizens to meet him and surrender. By this time the
forces that had been gathering at Lexington had moved
against him, under General Green Clay Smith, with
nearly double his strength; but the next morning he left
Paris unmolested, and marching through Winchester,
Richmond, Crab Orchard, and Somerset, crossed \he
Cumberland again at his leisure. He started with nine
hundred men, and returned with one thousand two hun-
dred, having captured and paroled nearly as many, and
having destroyed all the Government arms and stores in
seventeen towns.
Meantime the partially lulled excitement in Cincinnati
had risen again. A great meeting had been held in
Court street market-space, at which Judge Hugh J.
Jewett, who had-been the Democratic candidate for gov-
ernor, made an earnest appeal for rapid enlistments, to
redeem the pledge of the government to assist Kentucky,
and to prevent Morgan from recruiting a large army in
that State. Quartermaster-General Wright had followed
in a similar strain. The City Council, to silence doubts
on the part of some, had taken the oath of allegiance in
a body. The Chamber of Commerce had memorialized
the council to make an appropriation for bounties to vol-
unteers; Colonel Burbank had been appointed military
governor of the city, in response to a dispatch requesting
it, from Mayor Hatch and others; and there had been
rumors of martial law and a provost marshal. The popu-
lar ferment largely took the shape of clamor for bounties
as a means of stimulating volunteers. The newspapers
called on the governor to "take the responsibility,'' and
offer twenty-five dollars bounty for every recruit. Public-
spirited citizens made contributions for such a purpose —
Mr. J. Cleves Short, one thousand dollars, Messrs. Tyler
Davidson & Co., one thousand two hundred dollars, Mr.
Kugler, two thousand five hundred dollars, Mr. Jacob
Elsas, five hundred dollars. Two regiments for service
in emergencies were hastily formed, which were known
as the Cincinnati Reserves.
Yet, withal, the alarm never reached the height of the
excitement on Sunday, the thirteenth of July, when
Morgan was first reported marching on Lexington. The
papers said they should not be surprised any morning to
see his cavalry on the hills opposite Cincinnati; but the
people seemed to entertain less apprehension. They
were soon to have greater occasion for fear.
For the invasion of Morgan was only a forerunner. It
had served to illustrate to the rebel commanders the ease
with which their armies could be planted in Kentucky,
and had set before them a tempting vision of the rich
supplies of the "Blue Grass."
July and August passed in comparative gloom. Mc-
Clellan was recalled from the Peninsula. Pope was
driven back from the Rapidan, and after a bewildering
series of confused and bloody engagements, was forced to
seek refuge under the defences at Washington. On the
southwest our armies seemed torpid, and the enemy was
advancing. In the department in which Ohio was spe-
cially interested, there were grave delays in the long-
awaited movement on Chattanooga, and finally it ap-
peared that Bragg had arrived there before Buell.
Presently vague rumors of a new invasion began to be
whispered, and at last, while Bragg and Buell warily
watched each the other's maneuvers, Kirby Smith, who
had been posted at Knoxville, broke camp and marched
straight for the heart of Kentucky, with twelve thousand
men and thirty or forty pieces of artillery. With the first
rumors of danger, Indiana and Ohio had both made
strenuous exertions to throw forward the new levies, and
Indiana in particular had hastily put in the field in Ken-
tucky a large number of perfectly raw troops, just from
the camps at which they had been recruited.
Through Big Creek and Roger's Gap Kirby Smith
moved without molestation; passed the National forces
at Cumberland Gap without waiting to attempt a reduc-
tion of the place ; and absolutely pushed on into Ken-
tucky unopposed, till, within fifteen miles of Richmond
and less than three times that distance from Lexington
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
"5
itself, he fell upon a Kentucky regiment of cavalry under
Colonel Metcalf and scattered it in a single charge. The
routed cavalrymen bore back to Richmond and Lexing-
ton the first authentic news of the rebel advance. The
new troops were hastily pushed forward in utter igno-
rance of the strength of the enemy, and apparently with-
out any well-defined plans, and so, as the victorious in-
vaders came up toward Richmond, they found this force
opposing them. Smith seems scarcely to have halted,
even to concentrate his command; but, precipitating the
advance of his column, upon the raw line that confronted
him, scattered it again at a charge (August 29th). Gen-
eral Manson, who commanded the National troops, had
been caught before getting his men well in hand} A little
farther back he essayed the formation of another line, and
the check of the rout; but, while the broken line was
steadying, Smith again came charging up, and the disor-
derly retreat was speedily renewed. A third and more
determined stand was made, almost in the suburbs of the
town, and some hard fighting ensued ; but the undisci-
plined and ill-handled troops were no match for their en-
thusiastic assailants, and when they were this time driven,
the rout became complete. The cavalry fell upon the
fugitives; whole regiments were captured, and instantly
paroled; those who escaped fled through fields and by-
ways and soon poured into Lexington with the story of
the disaster.
Thither now went hurrying General H. G. Wright, the
commander of the department. A glance at the condi-
tion of such troops as this battle of Richmond had left
him, showed that an effort to hold Lexington would be
hopeless. Before Kirby Smith could get up he evacuated
the place, and was falling back in all haste on Louisville,
while the railroad company was hurrying its stock toward
the Cincinnati end of the road ; the banks were sending
off their specie ; Union men were fleeing, and the pre-
dominant rebel element was throwing off all disguise.
On the first of September General Kirby Smith entered
Lexington in triumph. Two days later he dispatched
Heath with five or six thousand men against Covington
and Cincinnati ; the next day he was joined by John
Morgan, who had moved through Glasgow and Danville;
and the overjoyed people of the city thronged the streets
and shouted from every door and window their welcome
to the invaders. Pollard, the Confederate historian, says
the bells of the city were rung, and every possible mani-
festation of joy was made. A few days later Buell was
at Nashville, Bragg was moving into Kentucky, and the
"race for Louisville," as it has sometimes been called, was
begun. So swift was the rebel rush upon Kentucky and
the Ohio border ; so sudden the revolution in the aspect
of the war in the Southwest.
We have told the simple story of the rebel progress.
It would need more vivid colors to give an adequate
picture of the state into which Cincinnati and the sur-
rounding country were thereby thrown.
News of the disaster at Richmond was not received in
Cincinnati until a late hour Saturday night, August 30th.
It produced great excitement, but the full extent of its
consequences was not realized. There were soldiers in
plenty to drive back the invaders, it was argued; only a
few experienced officers were needed. The sanitary
commission hastened its shipments of stores towards the
battle-field, and the State authorities began preparations
for sending relief to the wounded; while the newspapers
gave vent to the general dissatisfaction in severe criti-
cisms on the management of the battle, and in wonders
as to what Buell could be doing. Thus Sunday passed.
Monday afternoon rumors began to fly about that the
troops were in no condition to make any sufficient oppo-
sition, that Lexington and Frankfort might have to be
abandoned. Great crowds flocked about the newspaper
offices and army headquarters to ask the particulars; but
all still thought that in any event there were plenty of
troops between the invaders and themselves. By dusk
it was known that, instead of falling back upon Cincin-
nati, the troops were retreating through Frankfort to
Louisville — that between Kirby Smith's flushed regiments
and the banks and warehouses of the Queen City stood
no obstacle more formidable than a few unmanned siege
guns back of Covington, and the easily crossed Ohio
river.
The shock was profound. But none thought of any-
thing, save to seek what might be the most efficient
means of defence. The city council at once met in extra
session, pledged the faith of the city to meet any expen-
ses the military authorities might require in the emer-
gency ; authorized the mayor to suspend all business and
summon every man, alien or citizen, who lived under
the protection of the Government, to unite in military
organizations for its defence ; assured the general com-
manding the department (General Wright) of their entire
confidence, and requested him to call for men and means
to any extent desired, no limit being proposed save the
entire capacity of the community.
While the municipal authorities were thus tendering
the whole resources of the city of a quarter of a million
people, the commander of the department was sending
them a general. Lewis Wallace was a dashing young
officer of volunteers, who had been among the first from
Indiana to enter the field at the outbreak of the war,
and had risen to the highest promotion then attainable
in the army. He was notably quick to take responsibili-
ties, full of energy and enthusiasm, abundantly confident
in his own resources, capable of bold plans. When the
first indications of danger appeared he had waived his
rank and led one of the raw regiments from his State
into the field. Then, after being for a short time in
charge of the troops about Lexington, he had, on being
relieved by General Nelson, returned to Cincinnati.
Here the commander of the department seized upon
him for service in the sudden emergency, summoning
him first to Lexington for consultation; then, when him-
self hastening to Louisville, ordered Wallace back to
Cincinnati, to assume command and defend the town,
with its Kentucky suburbs.
He arrived at nine o'clock in the evening. The mayor
waited upon him at once with notice of the action of the
city council. The mayors of Newport and Covington
soon came hurrying over. The few army officers on
n6
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
duty in the three towns also reported; and a few hours
were spent in consultation.
Then, at 2 a. m., the decisive step was taken, a procla-
mation of martial law was sent to the newspapers. Next
morning the citizens read at their breakfast tables — before
yet any one knew that the rebels were advancing on Cin-
cinnati, two days in fact before the advance began — that
all business must be suspended at nine o'clock; that they
must assemble within an hour thereafter and await orders
for work; that the ferry-boats should cease plying, save
under military direction; that for the present the city po-
lice should enforce martial law; that in all this the princi-
ple to be adopted was : "Citizens for labor, soldiers for bat-
tle." It was the boldest and most vigorous order in the
history of Cincinnati or of the war along the border.*
"If the enemy should not come after all this fuss,''
said one of the general's friends, "you will be ruined."
"Very well," was the reply; "but they will come, or, if
they do not, it will be because this same fuss has caused
them to think better of it."
The city took courage from the bold course of its gen-
eral; instead of a panic there was universal congratula-
tion. "From the appearance of our streets,'' said one of
the newspapers the next day, in describing the operations
of martial law, " a stranger would imagine that some pop-
ular holiday was being celebrated. Indeed, were the
millenium suddenly inaugurated, the populace could
hardly seem better pleased." All cheerfully obeyed the
order, though there was not military force enough present
to have enforced it along a single street. Every business
house was closed; in the unexpectedly scrupulous obe-
dience to the letter of the proclamation, even the street-
cars stopped running, and the teachers, closing their
schools, reported for duty. But few hacks or wagons
were to be seen, save those On Government service. Work-
ing parties of citizens had been ordered to report to Col-
onel J. V. Guthrie; companies of citizen soldiers to
Major Malcolm McDowell. Meetings assembled in every
ward; great numbers of military organizations were
*The following is the text of this remarkable order, which practically
saved Cincinnati:
PROCLAMATION.
The undersigned, by order of Major-General Wright, assumes com-
mand of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport.
It is but fair to inform the citizens that an active, daring, and power-
ful enemy threatens them with every consequence of war; yet the cities
must be defended, and their inhabitants must assist in preparations.
Patriotism, duty, honor, self-preservation, call them to the labor, and it
must be performed equally by all citizens.
First. All business must be suspended. At nine o'clock to-day every
business house must be closed.
Second. Under the direction of the Mayor, the citizens must, within
an hour after the suspension of business (ten o'clock A. m.), assemble
in convenient public places ready for orders. As soon as possible they
will then be assigned to their work. This labor ought to be that of love,
and the undersigned trusts and believes it will be so. Anyhow, it must
be done. The willing shall be properly credited, the unwilling prompt-
ly visited. The principle adopted is, citizens for the labor, soldiers for
the battle.
Third. The ferry-boats will cease plying the river after four o'clock
A. m., until further orders.
Martial law is hereby proclaimed in the three cities; but until they can
be relieved by the military, the injunctions of this proclamation will be
executed by the police. Lewis Wallace,
Major General Commanding.
formed; by noon thousands of citizens in fully organized .
companies were industriously drilling. Meanwhile, back
of Newport and Covington, breastworks, rifle-pits, and
redoubts had been hastily traced, guns had been mounted,
pickets thrown out. Toward evening a sound of ham-
mers and saws arose from the landing; by daybreak a
pontoon bridge stretched from Cincinnati to Covington,
and wagons loaded with lumber for barracks and material
for fortifications were passing over.
In such spirit did Cincinnati herself confront the sud-
den danger. Not less vigorous was the action of the
governor. While Wallace was writing his proclamation
of martial law, and ordering the suspension of business,
Tod was hurrying down to the scene of danger for con-
sultation. Presently he was telegraphing from Cincinnati
to his adjutant-general to send whatever troops were ac-
cessible without a moment's delay. " Do not wait," he
added, "to have them mustered or paid — that can be
done here — they should be armed and furnished ammuni-
tion." To his quattermaster he telegraphed: "Send five
thousand stand of arms for the militia of the city, with
fifty rounds of ammunition. Send also forty rounds for
fifteen hundred guns (sixty-nine calibre)." To the peo-
ple along the border, through the press and the military
committees, he said :
Our southern border is threatened with invasion. I have therefore
to recommend that all the loyal men of your counties at once form
themselves into military companies and regiments to beat back the en-
emy at any and all points he may attempt to invade our State. Gather
up all the arms in the county, and furnish yourselves with ammunition
for the same. The service will be of but few days' duration. The soil
of Ohio must not be invaded by the enemies of our glorious Govern-
ment.
To Secretary Stanton he telegraphed that he had no
doubt a large rebel force was moving against Cincinnati,
but it would be successfully met. The commander at
Camp Dennison he directed to guard the track of the
Little Miami railroad against apprehended dangers, as
far up as Xenia.
The rural districts were meanwhile hastening to the
rescue. Early in the day — within an hour or two after
the arrival of the Cincinnati papers with news of the
danger — Preble and Butler counties telegraphed offers
of large numbers of men. Warren, Greene, Franklin,
and half a score of others, rapidly followed. Before
night the governor had sent a general answer in this
proclamation :
Cincinnati, Septembers, 1862.
In response to several communications tendering companies and
squads of men for the protection of Cincinnati, I announce that all
such bodies of men who are armed will be received. They will repair at
once to Cincinnati, and report to General Lew Wallace, who will com-
plete their further organization. Nonebut armed men will be received,
and such only until the fifth instant. Railroad companies will pass all
such bodies of men at the expense of the State. It is not desired that
any troops residing in any of the river counties leave their counties.
All such are requested to organize and remain for the protection of their
own counties. David Tod, Governor.
Before daybreak the advance of the men that were
thenceforward to be known in the history of the State as
the "Squirrel Hunters," were filing through the streets.
Next morning, throughout the interior, church and fire-
bells rang; mounted men galloped through neighbor-
hoods to spread the alarm ; there was a hasty cleaning of
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
117
rifles and moulding of bullets and filling of powder-horns
and mustering at the villages ; and every city-bound train
ran burdened with the gathering host.
While these preparations were in progress, perhaps
Cincinnati might have been taken by a vigorous dash of
Kirby Smith's entire force, and held long enough for
pillage. But the inaction for a day or two at Lexington
was fatal to such hopes. Within two days after the proc-
lamation of martial law the city was safe beyond per-
adventure. Then, as men saw the vast preparations for
an enemy that had not come, they began, not unnaturally,
to wonder if the need for such measures had been im-
perative. A few business men complained. Some Ger-
mans began tearing up a street-railroad track, in revenge
for the invidious distinction which, in spite of the danger,
had adjudged the street-cars indispensable, but not the
lager-beer shops. The schools had unintentionally been
closed by the operation of the first sweeping proclama-
tion, and fresh orders had to be issued -to open them;
bake-shops had been closed, and the people seemed in
danger of getting no bread ; the drug-stores had been
closed, and the sick could get no medicines. Such over-
sights were speedily corrected, but they left irritation.*
The Evening Times newspaper, giving voice to a senti-
ment that undoubtedly began to find expression among
some classes, published a communication which pro-
nounced the whole movement "a big scare," and ridiculed
the efforts to place the city in a posture of defense, t
To at least a slight extent the commander of the De-
partment would seem to have entertained the same opin-
ion. After two days of martial law and mustering for the
defense of the city, he directed, on his return from Louis-
ville, a relaxation of the stringency of the first orders, and
notified Governor Tod that no more men from the in-
terior were wanted. The next day he relieved General
Wallace of the command in Cincinnati and sent him
across the river to take charge of the defences; permitted
the resumption of all business save liquor selling, only re-
quiring that it should be suspended each afternoon at
* The following order, issued by the mayor, with the sanction of
General Wallace, obviated the difficulties involved in the literal suspen-
sion of all business in a great city :
First. The banks and bankers of this city will be permitted to open
their offices from one to two P. M.
Second. Bakers are allowed to pursue their business. m
Third. Physicians are allowed to attend their patients.
Fourth. Employes of newspapers are allowed to pursue their busi-
ness.
Fifth. Funerals are permitted, but only mourners are allowed to
leave the city.
Sixth. All coffee-houses and places where intoxicating liquors are
sold, are to be closed and kept closed.
Seventh. Eating and drinking-houses are to close and keep closed.
Eighth. All places of amusement are to close and keep closed.
Ninth. All drug-stores and apothecaries are permitted to keep open
and do their ordinary business.
George Hatch, Mayor of Cincinnati.
f Within an hour or two after this publication, General Wallace sup-
pressed the Times; for this article, as was generally supposed, although
it 
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